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* Now that they can no longer pretend the climate crisis isn’t real, big emitters and their enablers are making all of the right noises –- and taking none of the right actions.* This includes Australia's government.
It also includes United Airlines. It proposes to use "100% green fuel" for its planes, and plans to burn a lot more fuel than today; but it has no plausible plan to get enough of this green fuel to run more than a fraction of its flights.
A lawsuit challenges the intentionally inadequate US system for labeling genetically engineered foods.
Each kind of genetic modification raises different issues, so it is a
mistake to generalize about them. There is no reason to suppose by
default that they do practical harm, but some specific modified
varieties can do harm for specific reasons. Aside from that, they
are likely to carry patents which would do practical harm to society
if it depends on them for something important.
* Australia’s independent expert group OzSage has savaged the “let it rip” Covid-19 strategy in New South Wales and elsewhere, saying it will
condemn some people to death, particularly the more vulnerable.*
Australia has apparently flipped completely from the approach it used
until a few months ago.
*Indonesia relents on plan to push back boat carrying 100 Rohingya
refugees after outcry.*
Some Indian states are making it a crime to offer any sort of
inducement to convert to a religion.
Even beyond that, a local official will have the power to decide
what constitutes an inducement. That opens the door to repressive
selective enforcement — in favor of Hinduism and against anything
else.
What if the law were enforced honestly and narrowly? That's not going
to happen under a ruling party that encourages religious-based hate
crimes, but let's suppose.
I think that would still unacceptably restrictive. People should not
be required to get government approval for what they believe.
Public benefactors have developed an unpatented Covid-19 vaccine
and taught various companies around the world how to make it.
If it works against Omicron, it would be a great step forward.
Giving away a baby is not a simple and painless substitute for abortion.
It isn't painless for the mother, nor for the baby's subsequent life.
I wonder to what extent the pain, nowadays, of an adopted child's
subsequent life is socially constructed. Was it painful in general
200 years ago to be adopted, if your adoptive parents were not poor
and treated you as well as their other children? I don't know.
Perhaps in most cases you would know all along who your biological
parents were and the reason for the adoption — for instance, because
your parents had more children than they could support, or because
they had died, or to give a childless relative an heir. But there
would have been shame imposed on you if your parents were unmarried.
In my view, making one more human being is not inherently a plus —
and even less so nowadays, considering the disaster that any newborn
today would be heading for.
The Taliban have forbidden women to drive, or ride in a car, over 45 miles
from home, except with a male relative.
This will make it harder for women who are trapped by other forms of
repression to get out of Afghanistan. Perhaps that is its purpose.
Salafi Arabia continues to be even worse.
Global heating is on track to more or less put an end to winter.
A network of experts that generally underestimate the risk of certain
methods of tying or grabbing people systematically help thugs get away
with putting them in danger of death.
*The Right[-Wing] Wants to Make Disabled Veterans Into the New
"Welfare Queens."*
As usual, plutocratist politicians say they will "reform" the Veterans
Health Administration to make it more efficient. As usual, the real
result is to make the actual work more costly, while saving money by
creating opportunities to refuse to help people.
I wonder what sort of jobs wounded veterans who still have all their
limbs have a chance today of getting and doing successfully. If you
have no special skill that's in demand, you probably have to work 10
hours a day for a pittance and have your wages stolen.
Right-wing politicians generally advocate giving rich people "more
incentives" while giving poor people "tough love". This fits the
pattern.
*Arizona spends a majority of its welfare budget on the Department of
Child Safety. The agency then investigates many poor parents,
sometimes removing their children for reasons stemming from their
poverty.*
Right-wing politicians generally advocate giving rich people "more
incentives" while giving poor people "tough love". This fits the
pattern.
Robert Reich: *What is the real meaning of January 6?*
Places where global heating is eating away at people's homes.
Oklahoma Republicans are considering a bill to allow parents to
order the school library to remove specific books.
*Jamal Khashoggi's killers living in luxury villas in Riyadh, say witnesses.*
*There is nothing more unpatriotic than someone who calls [perself] a
"patriot." The flag-waving hypocrites who proudly proclaim their
loyalty to their country are determined to kill America.*
There is nothing new in seeing those who wish to spread cruelty and
repression wrapping themselves in the flag. But I have struggled to think
of a word that fits the enormity of the wrong those people are doing.
The anti-Covid drug molnupiravir has the potential to encourage the
development of new variants.
Only testing it in practice would show whether this happens or not;
but if does, the result could be a disaster.
Since the Pfizer treatment is more effective and does not have this
risk, we should not use molnupiravir.
Just as Covid-19 has evolved to spread more easily than ever,
Australia has adopted a criterion for "possible exposure" which is
narrower than ever.
It looks like a plan to avoid finding out about most cases of Covid-19.
New Orleans is planning a municipal wifi system that would operate
privately and enable surveillance of its users.
Air filters reduce the spread of Covid-19 indoors. Putting them in
all classrooms and other school spaces would help keep schools open
safely, and at a low cost too.
Yanis Varoufakis: why the Multiverse is fundamentally designed for zuckers.
Covid-19 provided an opportunity for billionaires to enrich themselves,
in the process pushing around 100 million people into poverty.
Governments should have prevented this, but didn't try hard.
Satellites launched by SpaceX threatened collision with China's space station twice this year. The US should not permit SpaceX to do that.
China aside, Starlink's planned 12,000 satellites would increase the
danger of collisions that would produce more space junk.
Despite the best of care in choosing their orbits — which SpaceX
appears not to have taken — it will be dangerous. So it should never
have been approved. No activity should get approval for thousands of
satellites.
To say "China does wrong too" does not constitute an excuse.
In space, and on Earth, we must work together to avoid disaster,
not argue about who is worse.
Over recent decades, US truck drivers' wages have gone down, their
working conditions have got much worse, and they are made to work long
hours, including many hours of unpaid waiting.
Drivers' unions have been mostly broken, and most of them are treated
as gig workers.
No wonder there is a shortage of truck drivers.
Dr Fauci proposes requiring vaccination for domestic US flights.
I am in favor of this. Anything that gets more Americans vaccinated
will save American lives and help beat Covid-19. Of course, there
will be an exception for people who for medical reasons must not be
vaccinated.
*Russian court orders closure of country’s oldest human rights group,* Memorial.
*At least 18 peaceful environmental protesters jailed in UK this year.*
Some have been sentenced to months in prison.
The magnitude of the disaster they are trying to prevent clearly justifies
disruption — but if their action makes the general public angry instead
of winning support, it would seem to be backfiring.
The injustice of the oil companies can motivate people to fight against
global heating.
However, in order to know what the threat is, and what to fight for, they
still need to understand at least what science says is going to happen.
Poland's right-wing government used Pegasus to spy on opposition
politicians.
This is one among many antidemocratic measures it has used.
Google, Facebook and Instagram are restricting accurate information
about abortion while permitting misinformation.
*Why the Very Worst People Really Don't Want Us to Look Up.*
If you want to watch the movie Don't Look Up, please don't watch it
on Netflix. That company uses malicious software and malicious
hardware in people's computers to restrict what they can do with the
video data.
It also records data about who watches what — data that should not
exist anywhere.
It also demands that its customers agree to an antisocial contract
promising not to share copies. If you have agreed to that antisocial
promise, you did wrong — so don't compound the wrong by keeping the
promise! But really you shouldn't agree to it in the first place.
There many reasons to flick off Netflix.
*Cori Bush: Congress Should Mark Jan 6. by Expelling Members Who
Helped Incite Attack.*
They violated their oath to defend the constitution.
She knows, as we know, that other Republicans in Congress will block that.
She aims to highlight how thoroughly the main stream of the Republican
Party has become disloyal to their country.
* Court instructs [Shell] to stop [seismic] tests along Wild Coast [of
South Africa] after concerns raised about wildlife and lack of
consultation.*
What this suggests to me is that government regulators failed to do
their job, failed to enforce regulations. Perhaps Shell's money
played a role in bringing that about.
California's record-breaking December snowfall is not enough to end
the years-long drought. Without more snow in the rest of the winter,
the water shortage will continue to get worse.
The response to Covid-19 has awakened pan-EU solidarity in pan-EU
public opinion.
However, Slovenia joined Poland and Hungary in undermining democracy
and civil liberties.
*Plastic beads could make nets more visible to cetaceans, scientists say.*
Putin is crushing the freedom to investigate and report on Stalin's
crimes of 70 years ago and more.
The European Court of Human Rights, to which Russia is a party, ruled in favor
of allowing Memorial to operate.
In Hong Kong, journalism that criticizes the government in any way is
now forbidden. Even people who stopped months ago face prison for
doing it before.
Everyone in Hong Kong who once criticized the state must be terrified
now, but freezing and keeping mum will not prevent their being jailed,
tortured and crushed. I hope that they have a chance to get out of
Hong Kong and apply for asylum, but the state may already have blocked
that. Otherwise, the only way I can see they can escape a fate worse
than death is choose to die taking an enemy with you.
I hope that I will have the courage to die fighting if I am ever in a
situation like that.
A regional project for Massachusetts to import Canadian hydropower
through Maine has run into difficulties because people living near the
planned cable were unhappy with it. Planet roasters aggravated the
dispute in order to kill the plan.
It wouldn't surprise me if the cable contractor chose an annoying route
in order to increase its profits. Maybe its path should be changed.
Maybe Massachusetts should pay Mainers and Anishnabeg more for the
electricity so as to win their approval. Why not? They are not well
off.
But I criticize the article for calling them "the most affected
communities", assuming that people who live near the power cable —
who are concerned about aesthetics and tourism — have more at stake
than the hundreds of millions whose lives will be upended, or simply
ended, by global heating disaster.
This deal is very important because it is a step towards saving them.
Changing details to salvage the deal is fine. Killing it is not.
Franco's dictatorship in Spain censored books and movies politically.
Censored versions are still being published, lent, and broadcast.
The uncensored works should be brought out, but I don't think the
censored versions should be destroyed or hidden from the public.
People should be able to see what right-wing censorship did.
Russia has allied itself with global heating disaster.
*Which philosophy helps us confront the crises that
beset us... "we first" or
"me first"?*
I agree with the basic point. We can't expect capitalism to naturally produce a system that will give society the best of capitalism and share the benefits with all of us. Capitalism tends to empower the greedy, who will seek to leave us in poverty. Preventing that requires institutions that are powerful enough to keep the rich down.
Ironically, we see that functioning only in China. But China's political repression makes it hell to be shunned.
*Sanders Says Congress Must
Ensure Mass Distribution of N95 Masks.*
I predict Republicans will oppose this. Although Republicans say they are only against requirements to wear masks, in general they oppose all wearing of masks to slow the spread of Covid-19.
More than that, they oppose all efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19. They will oppose making better masks available because that would result in making fewer people sick. Some oppose vaccines, saying they want people to develop immunity the dangerous "natural" way, rather than the safe way by vaccines.
There is no reason to take that extra risk.
Parents and caregivers that smoke have a
powerful influence on children to smoke.
In Britain, teenage children of those parents are four times as likely to
smoke like other teenagers.
(satire) *Oakley Introduces
Line Of Sunglasses For Front Of Head.*
US citizens: call on Interior Secretary Haaland to overturn the recent sale
of fossil fuel leases. Phone 1-866-834-8040.
I also said that the Interior Department should block all drilling
that it can block, because there is no room for it in the carbon
budget.
US citizens: call on Biden to reinstate the ban on landmines.
Manchin's blind trust, meant to reduce his conflicts of interest,
does not contain all his income from the fossil fuel stock he owns.
That means it fails to eliminate his conflict of interest.
Texas has a new effort to remove voter registrations from people
who fail to prove their citizenship when challenged.
While it is true that non-citizens have no right to vote in the US
(except in certain local elections in places that have granted them
the right to vote), it is easy to abuse a program like this to prevent some citizens
from lawfully voting. They may have moved and not get the letter.
Poor people often have to move frequently. They may get scared of any
sort of "trouble", especially if they belong to dis-privileged racial
or ethnic groups.
In addition, the agency carrying out the purge has opportunities to do
racial profiling when choosing whom to challenge.
Biden has put an end to the Republican plan to attach work
requirements to Medicaid, state by state.
Black and Asian-American job applicants face discrimination in simply
getting a job interview. The proof is in a study that found they were
twice as likely to get an interview if their resumes avoided disclosing
their race.
The plastic pellets called "nurdles", used as the base for molding
plastic products, may be toxic to animals when they spill in the sea.
There is a push to upgrade the standards for shipping them to make
it less likely they will get loose if a container falls in the water.
Ariel Dorfman describes his hopes for Chile's new president Boric, as
well as the obstacles and opportunities he faces.
DeSantis wants to authorize parents to sue schools that teach "critical race theory".
Critical race theory is historical study of the development of racism
and its role in the history of the US. That is a legitimate and
important part of US history. But when right-wingers use that term,
it means all sorts of different things. We can't tell what sorts of
teaching that law will actually try to do away with.
Global protests have been rising for 10 years. Most of them support
progressive causes; a minority are far-right-wing.
The EPA has delayed 20 years in developing regulations for DINP, an
endocrine disruptor and carcinogen.
*Revealed: US Public Pension Funds Are "Quiet Culprits of Climate Chaos".*
Labour has attacked the UK government for opposing the approval
of generic manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines.
At least it has done one good thing.
The public is encouraged to feel it is safe to open the economy and
spread Covid-19 because only "people with underlying conditions" die.
Then that is equated to people who are unproductive and on their last
legs anyway. But actually it's a large fraction of everyone.
That article cites statistics for Australia, but I expect the situation
is similar elsewhere.
However, there are situations in which we really need to keep part of
the economy going. The US medical system is being undermined by the
number of staff who are getting Covid-19. There is a move to let sick
workers return to work sooner, which medical personnel say is
dangerous.
Which is worse — for some people to get treatment from staff that
have a slightly larger chance of giving them Covid-19, or for some people
not to get treatment at all? I think it depends on the details.
An argument against the prevailing belief that more education
naturally leads to a general reduction in poverty.
A lack of education can keep people's wages down, but providing more
education doesn't necessarily enable poor people to earn more. There
are other things that can keep wages down, including business owners'
greed, racism, and sexism.
*Democracy under attack: how Republicans led the effort to make it
harder to vote.*
A cloth mask does some good in reducing the spread of Covid-19,
if it's over your nose and mouth, and a surgical mask is better.
But you can get a lot more protection from an N95 or FFP2 mask.
Real KN95 masks are equivalent, but there are lots of counterfeit
KN95s. The CDC has a web page that lists many counterfeit KN95
brands, but I'd rather get an FFP2.
Mudassar Kadir, a former BBC journalist in Afghanistan, got out of Afghanistan
but is stuck in Dubai. The UK scheme to aid refugees who worked for the UK
government doesn't cover people who worked for the BBC.
15 years in prison in today's Russia, for writing about the Soviet
Union's crimes.
PEN America, founded by writers to defend the freedom to write, has
been taken over by plutocratists. This shows when the organization smears
Julian Assange in the process of nominally defending him.
Various proposed approaches to regulating Facebook.
*Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan.*
*Gabriel Boric vows to "fight privileges of the few" as Chile’s premier.*
Republicans' coup preparations are pushing the US towards a risk of
civil war.
New Zealand has extended its quarantine requirements to stop Omicron
from spreading at large.
Scotland is moving to pass a law to formally pardon the people
executed as "witches" until 1736.
There is a campaign for all of Europe to do this.
Amir Assadollahzadeh, Iranian athlete competing at a championship in
Norway, was threatened with punishment by his national team unless he
publicly showed support for General Soleimani. He fled and has sought
asylum.
In the end-Permian mass extinction, 7-10° C of global heating caused
microbes to grow faster and turn most of the ocean into a deoxygenated
dead zone. Then other microbes, those which could metabolize sulfur,
did so and filled the ocean with hydrogen sulfide, which killed most
other sea life.
We could be on target to make 7°C of global heating — especially with the help
of methane leaking from permafrost.
Maybe equally drastic (though different) results will follow.
How many humans could survive that?
Explaining the distortions in a widely circulated article which
alleges many kinds of sloppiness in a 2020 clinical trial of the
Pfizer vaccine, and exaggerates their significance.
If the facts in the article are accurate, most of them have no effect
on the validity of the trial's conclusions. As explained here, they
had a small chance of affecting some 1000 — out of 44000 total
subjects — in the trial.
That 2020 trial is irrelevant for evaluating the Pfizer vaccine
nowadays, because we now have records of hundreds of millions of
people who have been vaccinated with it. That is far more evidence
than the trial gathered, and shows conclusively that the vaccine does
considerable good and hardly any harm.
*How China Uses Contractors to Spread Propaganda on Facebook and Twitter.*
It includes spreading false reports to undermine those who criticize
or resist China.
(satire) *Nation's Next Of Kin Exhausted From Constantly Identifying Bodies.*
The article exaggerates — this sort of burden is limited to states
ruled by Republicans.
Reporting that bus service in Chile was shut down on election day
as a voter-suppression tactic.
It was not successful in preventing Baric's victory.
*Tigrayan forces to pull out of nearby Ethiopian regions in ceasefire offer.*
We are getting little scraps of information, and I don't think we can make
any sense of them.
*Right-Wing Groups Opposed to Government Aid Cashed In While Collecting PPP
Loans.*
*The European Commission is facing a backlash from Greta Thunberg
and fellow climate activists over plans to include gas and nuclear
energy in a "green" investment guidebook.*
The plan to include subterranean gas is so absurd that it amounts to
telling the world to drop dead.
*My family Christmas has got a lot better since we stopped giving presents.*
I am not at all inclined to celebrate Christmas, but if I did participate in a
family holiday, I would consider following that family's decision.
Proposing a plan for confronting this pandemic and future pandemics.
Paxlovid saves most people who catch Covid-19, and reduces transmission, too.
We need to make enough for everyone. You can be sure Big Pharma will block the way we could produce enough to
save everyone.
*By ditching landmark climate legislation, America makes the world
unsafe.*
Other countries should threaten the US with economic sanctions
unless it helps save the world from global heating.
*"Foreign criminals" are just an excuse: the Tories are trying to take away
rights from all of us.*
The enemies of liberty always find a scapegoat to serve as an excuse.
*US labor organizing rises in 2021 after decades of decline.*
*Joe Manchin Is Faking His Fears of Inflation.*
Activists who protested for democracy in Egypt have now been sentenced
to prison.
The charges of "spread false news" remind us that a truth-hating government
will apply these charges to truth-telling. If the Republicans take control,
they will prohibit refuting their lies.
The New York Times obtained confidential communications between
Project Veritas and its lawyer. Project Veritas got an injunction
ordering the Times not to publish the memos.
This violates the First Amendment's protection of freedom of the
press, as it has generally been interpreted. I wish we could count on
the Supreme Court to stand by that protection.
Vietnamese workers accept debts as much as $30,000 to get smuggled
into Europe and forced to work doing construction, manufacturing,
agriculture, restaurants and nail bars.
They pass through a Chinese factory set up as part of a special deal
between China and Serbia.
Each trip to another country is a gamble on a false dream.
In effect, they are addicted to gambling.
*Hindu nationalists mimic Nazi Germany with a vow to "fight, die, and kill".*
One trafficking ring made $200 million trafficking workers from Mexico
to work as slaves on farms in Georgia.
*Global health experts and activists have been warning for more than a
year that aggressive variants of the virus are essentially guaranteed
as long as much of the world’s population remains unvaccinated.*
George Monbiot registered his deceased goldfish as a waste disposal
business to show how utterly sloppy the UK government is about
protecting the environment.
Stella McCartney (to name just one rich person that you may have
heard of) increased her own salary even as her company was getting
government money to help it last through Covid-19.
A legal requirement to offset new greenhouse gas emissions has the effect
of a tax on emissions, because the required offsets will cost money
whether or not they actually absorb any CO2.
*The Pentagon's 20-Year Killing Spree Has Always Treated Civilians as
Expendable.*
Vaccinating everyone against Covid-19 will cost far less than allowing
it to continue to cause havoc. Here are recommendations.
The US military installed pipelines to transport jet fuel around
Okinawa, but it has covered up the fact that the sensors to check for
leaks are broken.
Explaining fintech startups as ideas for systems to move money around
and make it look like something special and brilliant, so people won't
count how much they're paying for it.
Google and Apple divide up the market for spyphones; this duopoly does
part of the harm that a monopoly would do.
*[Although] the amount of [US] land burned
this year didn’t reach 2020 levels, a troubling new trend emerged:
fires are getting harder to fight.*
Kim Potter was convicted of killing Daunte Wright, apparently based on
concluding that her taking the pistol by mistake constituted such
great negligence as to be criminal.
Manchin's excuse of "inflation", for blocking the climate-and-relief
bill, is refuted by Sanders and by many economists.
The NAACP, represented by the ACLU, has sued South Carolina in federal
court for its newly designed system of racist gerrymandering.
They deserve to prevail, but I am concerned about one possible obstacle.
I seem to recall that, two or three years ago, the US Supreme Court's
right-wing majority ruled that federal courts had no jurisdiction over
state-level gerrymandering.
Is that correct? If so, does it imply that this lawsuit is doomed to
defeat? If there is a crucial legal difference in this case, can
anyone tell me what it is?
A list of many ways climate mayhem affects, and will increasingly affect,
human health.
*Local officials call on Idaho sheriff to resign after he allegedly
made disparaging comments about Native Americans.*
Officials must serve all the public — those who accept bigotry are
not qualified for the job. This goes double for cops, because bigoted
cops are likely to be thugs.
*Amazon Settlement With NLRB Could Ease Worker Unionization Efforts.*
The settlement binds Amazon to avoid certain forms of union-busting,
for all its US warehouses, and will enable the NLRB to act quickly if
Amazon violates the deal.
*21 Million+ Going Hungry in US as Manchin Tanks Expanded Child Tax Credit.*
*Conservationists say a plan to search for oil and gas near Rowley
Shoals in north-west Australia is "reckless" and will put one of the
world’s healthiest reefs at risk.*
That is a powerful secondary reason for not considering extraction
there. It may persuade some of those that don't give a damn about the
primary reason: there is no room in the carbon budget for any new
fossil fuel extraction.
Continued emission of CO2 makes the ocean acidic and will eventually
kill essentialy all coral, and many other kinds of marine animals too.
A new US law presumes that goods produced in Xinjiang were made with
forced labor unless there is proof to the contrary.
Explaining the distortions in a widely circulated article which
alleges many kinds of sloppiness in a 2020 clinical trial of the
Pfizer vaccine, and exaggerates their significance.
If the facts in the article are accurate, most of them have no effect
on the validity of the trial's conclusions. As explained here, they
had a small chance of affecting some 1000 — out of 44000 total
subjects — in the trial.
That 2020 trial is irrelevent for evaluating the Pfizer vaccine
nowadays, because we now have records of hundreds of millions of
people who have been vaccinated with it. That is far more evidence
than the trial gathered, and shows conclusively that the vaccine does
considerable good and hardly any harm.
US citizens: call on the House to remove racist Rep. Boebert's committee
assignments.
This needs to be done, but it is an inadequate punishment because they
don't care about their punishment. They are making veiled but obvious
calls to overthrow US democracy and impose forced permanent minority
rule, and it is building up a movement to do exactly that.
Next rally for Assange: 2pm to 3:30pm on Dec 31 in Copley Sq, Boston.
US citizens: call on Attorney General Merrick Garland to fire the
wrecker's appointees in the DOJ.
US citizens: call on Biden to cut the Pentagon budget.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Martha Wright-Reed Prison
Phone Justice Act.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Some songbirds in Europe are threatened by traditional hunting carried
out at a massive level.
There is no possible valid justification for unsustainable hunting of
threatened species. People who advocate the right to hunt, if that is
not a euphemism for the right to trash the world, must support
regulation that will ensure that the species continues thrive.
A plan has been announced to change the UK's handling of transgender
recognition, to better respect the rights of trans people and the need
for protection of biological females.
Since I'm neither a trans person nor a female, I don't have opinions
on the details of how to handle these things. But I do intensely hope
that those two groups find a modus vivendi they can live with, so that
they cease to see each other as enemies.
Intel apologized to China for the offense of informing its suppliers
that US law requires them to avoid products from and manufacturing in Xinjiang
(because of China's repression of the Uyghurs with forced labor and brainwashing).
As American cities remove statues of people that fought to continue
slavery, Hong Kong's universities are removing statues that
commemorated the Tien An Men Square protests for democracy, and the
massacre of the protesting students.
Many of the prisoners in Rikers Island prison have caught
Covid-19 in the past week.
The city offered a bonus to persuade prisoners to get vaccinated.
One can't ask more than that.
Boston City Council members are investigating how the thug department is
spending money taken from people without a trial to buy surveillance data.
This should extend to all forms of acquisition of surveillance
equipment — and arms — and to arranging to use them without buying
them.
*AOC Leads Demand for Biden to Work on Ending Saudi Blockade of Crucial Yemen
Airport.*
*The Fed Must Act on the Climate Crisis to Protect Our Planet and Economy.*
Amazon warehouse workers say that the company works them so hard that some die
from it.
Biden has come around to accepting the idea of curbing the filibuster,
if necessary, to pass voting rights laws.
To get this passed, he needs to do more than accept this. He has to
lead a push for it, to have chance to get Manchin to go along with it.
And we are running out of time, as regards gerrymandering.
*US intel and satellite images show Saudi Arabia is now
building its own ballistic missiles with help of China.*
Fortunately Salafi Arabia isn't building these to launch nuclear
weapons.
New York City is divesting all its pension funds from fossil fuels.
Several funds have already completed the operation.
* Researchers have advocated moving away from "just-in-time" model to
more resilient structures.*
"Just-in-time" is designed to maximize efficiency at the expense of
robustness. I've called it foolhardy.
In coming decades, climate mayhem will cause disruptions of supply due
to floods, fires, mass starvation, and wars.
The books that right-wingers ban in school libraries are gaining new
popularity.
Do you believe that there were only two books about heterosexual
relationships in the high school library? Nonsense! Considering
Shakespeare only, they must have had Romeo and Juliet, Antony and
Cleopatra, Macbeth, King Lear, and Henry V. But those books did not
show up in the search, perhaps because nobody thought of labeling them
with "heterosexual."
There are several ways Biden can use executive authority to accomplish
the goals that Manchin opposes.
*[The wrecker] could face charges for trying to obstruct certification
of election, legal experts say.*
I wonder if this law can be used to thwart Republican efforts to
override local election results in future elections.
*Research identifies at least 262 bills were introduced in 41 states
this year with the intent to hijack the election process.*
*"My grandmother hid Jewish children": Poland’s underground refugee network.*
*It’s Christmas in the Metaverse.*
Strictly for zuckers.
*US to lift Omicron travel ban on eight African countries.*
The attempt to keep Omicron out of the US was worth a try, but there
is clearly no need to continue it. I'm glad that the US has
demonstrated rationality, first by trying the travel ban quickly, and
then by ending it.
Senate Democrats have failed to
fight hard to pass voting rights
The US has relaxed its sanctions on
Afghanistan to allow some
humanitarian aid to arrive there.
It is disappointing that it took the US months to do do what is obviously
morally required.
*WHO boss: western countries’ Covid booster
WHO boss: Covid booster drives likely to prolong pandemic*
That is true, unless we expand production quickly to the practical limits.
The way to do that is to allow generic production.
Furthermore, vaccination in poor countries is further limited because someone
has to pay the high market price. Allowing generic production would make
vaccines available at prices donors could afford to fund for everyone.
An undercover agent in the
Klu Klux Klan reported two murder plots
to the FBI.
He also reported on uniformed "law enforcement" officers who were
traitors, working for the KKK. The agencies they worked for were
ineffectual at controlling this. Look at the Florida agency which
asks us to suppose that this problem is entirely a thing of the past.
The FBI has history of catching fantasy terrorists that could never
have committed violence in the real world without FBI informants'
holding their hands.
They were caught with fake explosives that they
believed were real.
In this instance, the FBI investigated people who could have really
carried out violence, or helped do so. The FBI was really doing its
job.
The fantasy terrorists were Islamists. It does not appear there is
a real Islamist terror network in the US,
but there is a real
white-supremacist terror network
Omicron is indeed milder,
and fewer patients will need to be admitted
to a hospital.
However, because it spreads so fast, it can still overwhelm
medical systems.
How the Koch Network built
up the movement against resisting Covid-19.
*Boston police bought spy tech with a
pot of money hidden from the
public.*
The thug department got the money via "civil forfeiture", which is a
legal excuse to take people's money —
punishment without a trial.
That's not their only source of funds for thumbing their noses at
the law: many thug departments have foundations set up to give them
money they can use in unaccountable ways.
In Cambridge, the thug department cannot evade the surveillance tech
ordinance by using outside funds. Boston should do likewise. More
generally, laws should forbid thug departments from buying arms or spy
devices without city authorization, regardless of what money they use,
and from accepting them as gifts.
As for civil forfeiture, that must be
abolished.
Punishment without trial is tyranny.
*Biden's New Fuel Economy Standards Still
Allow Cars to Pollute More
If They're Not Called Cars.*
The different categories once had a rationale, but changes in vehicle
production have erased that, leaving nothing but an excuse to pollute
more.
One simple solution is to put a big tax on the categories that are allowed
to pollute more.
British families living in public housing will be hit with many
increases in expenses including a rent increase, a tax increase,
plus
gas and electric increases, along with inflation.
*200,000 UK children
could be made homeless this winter.*
I'd expect that an even larger number of adults are in danger of
homelessness.
Hindu nationalists publicly support Indians accused of
harassment of
Muslims and Christians.
The Hindu-nationalists in India are raving about supposed forced
conversions to Islam the same way Republicans rave about supposed voter fraud.
An official that seached for such cases in Karnataka and
couldn't find any
was punished just like Republicans who couldn't find any voter fraud.
*Some Prisoners Released During Pandemic
Can Stay on Home Confinement,
Says DOJ.*
"Buy now, pay later" is a form of borrowing with no
safeguard to assure
a user doesn't go heavily into debt.
The sudanese opposition accuses the
military of raping protesters.
*'Major Win for 45 Million Student Debtors':
Biden Extends Loan Payment Freeze.*
"Next, President Biden should cancel student debt," said Sen. Elizabeth
Warren.
(satire) *More Fridge Magnets Forced To
Take On Extra Holiday Work Holding Up Christmas Cards.*
Biden should invoke the Defense Production Act to compel
vaccine companies
to cooperate with generic production.
Sanders calls on the Democratic Party to
show courage and fight for the Build Back Better relief bill.
To make Manchin and Sinema visibly take a side for it or against it.
*Corporate Donations Poured Into Manchin's
PAC Ahead of Final 'No' on Build
Back Better.*
Striking workers at Kellogg's accepted a
contract somewhat better than
the one they previously rejected.
They did not abolish the two-tier system, but they established a way
for some newer workers to get into the higher tier.
Kellogg's responded to the rejection of its
unsatisfactory
contract by firing all the striking workers.
People started a boycott in response. When I was ready to post about
it, I held off because of a report that a new contract was being
discussed.
I read that Kellogg's was unable to find any replacement workers to
hire.
I have never forgiven Kellogg's lawsuit against the erotic satire
comic Cherry Poptart. I enjoyed the joke, so resent the company for
censoring it. The trademark claim may have been invalid, since no one
was ever going to think that the comic had anything to do with
Pop-tarts or Kellogg's.
Call on Congress to reform the Supreme Court to
take it away from the
right-wing extremists.
Staff sick with Omicron is reducing the capacity of some US hospitals
just as
they were reaching the point of overload.
*How electric vehicles
have helped labor and climate groups team up.*
Even asymptomatic Covid-19 infections can result in lasting
disability, also known as "long Covid". Will the disabilities
from previous
Covid infections act as commodities to cause
massive deaths from Omicron?
Robert Reich: more important than whether you go to a holiday party is
whether
the US will get its act together so we can protect each other
from Covid-19.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act.
I think the specific rules described in the petition
are not ideal, but I signed anyway because the overall idea is good.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Senate to remove Senator Joe Manchin as
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
US citizens: call on Biden to reduce the sanctions on Afghanistan
enough to ensure they do not cause anyone to starve.
(satire) *Police Finally Throw Out Old, Embarrassing Evidence From '80s.*
Omicron will test whether the US can now defend itself from pandemics.
Our individual actions will add up to the nation's response.
Naturally, Republicans urge people to be selfish about it. When they
say, "It is a personal decision," they mean, "Don't care about anyone
else." By reducing solidarity, they aim to weaken the nation by
causing more sickness and more economic damage, which they will use to
stimulate support for imposing minority rule.
I will go further than Robert Reich, and suggest that you pull out of
any gatherings unless they are just a handful of people, all
vaccinated, and all limiting their other contacts.
*After Mocking Idea, Biden Administration to Distribute 500 Million
Free Covid Tests.*
You can look at the positive side: in just two weeks, they changed their
mind and adopted the policy. That's pretty good flexibility.
But the first 500 million won't last long if people use them as often
as they should.
These tests give a significant fraction of false negatives, so don't
assume you're safe for others because you got a negative result. The
real benefit of these tests is for employees who can't work from home
to use them frequently, and therefore avoid going to work after a
positive result.
People in Linlithgow are campaigning to preserve the name of a
centuries-old pub, the Black Bitch, which refers to a female dog from
a 13th-century legend.
I agree with Nidhin Chand, the resident who said, "If people want to
address [racism in Linlithgow] they need to tackle real racism, not a
female dog.” Her name suggest she is of Indian origin, so I would
expect she has been a target of racism.
If there are people who think the pub's name is racist, whether
residents or visitors, that results from ignorance — and ignorance
can be corrected. For instance, the city could put up an a very
visible point-of-interest placard about the legend, near the pub
itself.
Robert Reich: the cause of today's inflation in the US is a lack of
competition. Businesses raise prices even though they are making
great profits already, because there is nothing to stop them.
The Federal Reserve's chair, a Republican that Biden
reappointed in the teeth of progressive demands not to do so,
is using that inflation as an opportunity to cool down the economy.
That will hamper unionization — surely a Republican's goal.
However, the Omicron variant is likely to cool the economy quite a bit
in January. Even if few get badly sick from Omicron, many will have
to stay home. Many businesses will have to reduce service. So will
hospitals; people will die from that, including people with diseases
other than Covid.
The United Mine Workers has called on Manchin to support the Build
Back Better bill. This might change his mind.
OSHA's vaccine-or-test mandate for employees is now, at least temporarily,
back in effect. This ought to get a lot more Americans vaccinated,
and enable many others to stay home when sick.
Many retail stores have fewer than 100 employees, and they are exempt
from the requirement. They should follow the policy anyway, or else
OSHA should include them — for the customers' safety.
It appears that Neanderthals in Europe, 125,000 years ago, kept
forests open by starting fires occasionally.
The indigenous Australians are known to have started brush fires
frequently enough that the fires burned only the brush, and spared the
trees. This kept the terrain open. It seems they did this by policy.
Perhaps biologically modern humans used this method everywhere that
it was applicable.
The article's information is that Neanderthals did basically the same
thing. They too may have done it by policy, thought we don't know
yet.
Reclaim Finance studied the drawdown plans of 47 coal companies
and found that only 3 have basically adequate plans.
The rest are planning to sell their mines, or punt the ball into the future.
The UK has achieved a world first by eradicating subterranean termites.
A UK court quashed the convictions of four migrants who were forced to
drive the boats that they had paid to travel in.
Tories plan to ask retired British teachers to fill in when the
regular teachers are out sick with Covid-19. Here's what the request
would look like.
*New York Times Reporting on Airstrikes Should Give Daniel Hale More
Credit. And call for Biden to immediately pardon him.*
Peng Shuai made a recorded announcement that she never accused a high
official of some sexual crime. We know this is false — people saw her statement. She did accuse
him.
For a ruling organization that has contempt for truth, such as the
Chinese Communist Party or the Republican Party, it is perfectly
acceptable to flat-out deny what people know. In China, hardly anyone
dares contradict an official lie. Republicans have convinced tens of
millions of cultists to believe lies willingly when they come from the
cult's leaders. Partly because they expect to be drummed out of the
cult if they ever disagree.
I don't see any description of what Peng said the official did, other
than "sexual assault", which is not specific. It covers a wide range,
so we don't know what kind of act she is talking about. However, in
this case I expect it had to be rather grave, to motivate her to take
such a risk.
The US military has prohibited active participation in extremist groups.
*Defending Julian Assange Is Defending Anyone Who Dares to Speak the Truth.*
The core of Putin's bullshit is to pretend that, for NATO not to make
concessions constitutes an attack. "Russia has no place to retreat
to" pretends that for Russia not to attack would constitute retreat.
Humoring this pretense only gives Putin additional clout. NATO by
doing so hobbles itself.
*More than 167,000 US children have lost a caregiver to Covid.*
The wrecker and the Republican Party are to blame for making it so
many.
Right-wing extremist groups are probing in towns and counties around
the US for where they can get away with violence and intimidation.
Research suggests a relationship between microplastics and
inflammatory bowel disease.
US citizens: support the
EPA's proposal to regulate methane.
*As of December 16, there have been only nine confirmed deaths
directly related to, or caused by, Covid vaccines (specifically the
Johnson & Johnson vaccine), despite over 490 million vaccine doses
being administered in the US, while over 800,000 people have died
from Covid, out of over 50 million confirmed Covid cases in the US.
Yet many believe they are better off taking their
chances with getting
Covid instead of getting vaccinated, when in reality, Covid infection
is hundreds of thousands of times more dangerous than vaccination.*
Get your immunity the safe, easy and reliable way — through vaccine!
Kanye West's campaign for president was funded and
run by the
Republican machine
West and the Kardashians have something in common with the bullshitter:
the audacious pursuit of attention regardless of how.
*Who is Gabriel Boric? The radical student leader
who will be Chile's
next president.*
He defeated a supporter of Pinochet's military dictatorship, which took
power in a US-backed military coup and then murdered thousands of
people that opposed it.
What right wing extremists seek to censor: *sex education, race,
LGBTQ+ lives and -– perhaps most troubling of all –
those that teach
young people about their human rights.*
Manchin admits he is determined to make
Americans poorer.
*The enemies of American democracy?
Big lie, big anger and big money.*
Tory ideas of freedom: people should be free to go to the theater
unvaccinated and spread disease,
but those who catch it as a result
are not free to get treatment.
Also, free to extract and burn oil, but not free to inconvenience
anyone protesting against that.
By the way, Bagehot's words, quoted in the article, would seem to
justify almost any conceivable means to cut down the use of fossil
fuels. Our society cannot survive continuing this way.
*The science is clear: climate, biodiversity and
human health are fully interdependent.*
Florida Power and Light is lobbying Republican state legislators
to
reduce incentives for homeowners to install solar power systems.
Its money helped put some of those legislators in power.
I don't know whether its lobbying broke any laws, but in a broader
sense it constitutes corruption.
*The prison radio station
giving Texas men on death row a voice.*
The UK is engineering legal rulings to give Venezuela's
gold reserves of almost 2 billion dollars to golpista Juan Guaidó.
This reminds of of the string of bizarre legal proceedings
that engineered the decision to extradite Julian Assange to the US.
In both cases, the UK has twisted its own legal system to do the US
bidding.
*An 82-year-old Jewish woman, who is being investigated by Labour
for alleged antisemitism for the third time in less than three years,
is threatening legal action against the party, claiming it has
unlawfully
discriminated against her based on her belief in
anti-Zionism.*
If she wins her suit, will Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters be readmitted
to the Labour Party?
One will was put through probate twice.
*Republicans are shamelessly working to subvert democracy. Are Democrats
paying attention?*
A pilot program in Liverpool a year ago, in which essential workers
took a home Covid test every day, cut the number of people in
hospitals for Covid by 1/3.
Mark Meadows was the coordinator of most of the bullshitter's
coup attempt on Jan 6.
*The reality of soil carbon is that it is highly variable, hard to
measure, hard to shift and easy to lose.* It is important, but basing
a plan on it is risky.
*[The bullshitter]’s Next Coup Has Already Begun.*
12% of Americans are leaning towards violence in support of the delusions
that the bullshitter's machine has propagated.
*Amid Deadly Tornado, Texts Show Amazon Threatened to Fire Driver If Packages Not Delivered.*
The Socialist Kshama Sawant, on the Seattle city council, won a
recall election pushed by big business money.
*Tennessee recently passed anti–Critical Race Theory legislation,
banning educators from teaching students that any individuals are
"inherently privileged, sexist, or oppressive" based on their race
or sex.*
Clearly no person is "inherently" sexist, because that is an attitude.
Likewise, no person is "inherently" oppressive, because oppression is
a matter of conduct. Schools should never teach things like that, and
I can't criticize those two points in Tennessee's law.
It is clearly true in our society that some people are given more
baseline privilege regardless of what they say or do. Is it right to
say that they are "inherently" privileged? I think not: the privilege
is inherent in the system, not in the person.
However, that is a subtle distinction, and I can easily imagine that
white supremacist Tennessee officials might disregard it and punish a
teacher for teaching the facts about racism.
Amazon collaborated actively with Chinese propaganda to get authorization
to sell in China.
The December tornadoes were unprecedented — very different from usual
tornadoes.
Global heating is at work.
(satire) *Things No One Tells You Happen When You Fly First Class.*
*PFAS "forever chemicals" constantly cycle through ground, air and water,
study finds.*
US citizens: call on Congress to expand the Supreme Court.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the House of Representatives to hold Mark Meadows
in contempt.
US citizens: call on Biden to cancel student loan debt.
Sanders: *We need leadership at the FDA that is finally willing to stand up to
the greed and power of the pharmaceutical industry. In this critical
moment, Dr. Califf is not the leader Americans need at the agency.*
Biden's energy secretary reassured the organized Big Oil that the US
government won't fight with them. "We're not a bogeyman...We heard
you loud and clear."
That seems to explain why Biden is not listening to us.
I should explain that I am not convinced that banning oil export from
the US is. itself, crucial. That ban would not reduce fossil fuel
usage, nor fossil fuel demand. If there is a way it would help us
prevent climate disaster, I don't see it.
On the other hand, reducing oil extraction in the US is crucial
progress. The US has to push for this, not just make distant
pledges to push later.
(satire) Leaked January 6 Texts To White House (The Onion's version).
*The Plan to Tax Stock Buybacks From Corporations With Record Breaking
Profits.*
* A coalition of public health advocates is urging the Biden
administration to retain public ownership over "any new domestic
manufacturing capacity that is established" as a result of the White
House's plan to increase the global supply of Covid-19
vaccines.*
Senator Warren has endorsed expanding the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court rulings allowed donations to separate election advocacy
organizations on the supposition that they are independent of the candidate's
campaign.
If politics were known for the highest level of moral probity, perhaps
we could trust them to do that. Some people stated their belief in
this, perhaps as willful self-delusion. The rest of us suspected it
was bullshit.
Now we have evidence it is often false. In many cases the official
campaign and the "independent" advocacy organization hire the same
consultant.
Starbucks workers at more stores are pushing for votes to unionize.
Meanwhile, the company is retaliating against workers and managers.
If you live near any of the stores where workers are pushing to
unionize, you might have fun standing outside with a sign saying
"Hooray for the union!" If you occasionally patronize one of them,
you could also make a small sign saying "Union Yes!", put it on your
bag, and go in and buy something.
The US settlement with Purdue Pharma has been blocked by a judge
who objected to protecting the Sacklers from lawsuits.
Tories propose to require banks to lend to fossil fuel companies.
Somalia is being hit badly by global heating — three successive seasons
have brought no rain.
The Arctic is heating much faster than the rest of the Earth.
The record temperature recorded in the Arctic is now 38C — above
human body temperature.
All countries in the Middle East (including Iran) voted repeatedly for
a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, except Israel.
The last time it was proposed, the only other country opposing it was
the US.
This is an almost certain way to assure Iran does not develop nuclear
weapons.
Decades ago, when Israel was surrounded by countries that called for
attacking and destroying an outnumbered Israel, Israel needed a
nuclear deterrent against that possible attack. Even though Israel
won its wars against all the much bigger Arab armies, there was no
guarantee that it always would. But now many of those countries
have made peace with Israel. Israel may want nuclear weapons
but it doesn't need them. And the US doesn't need to insist that
Israel keep them.
As Republicans prepare their next coup, no powerful force in the US
is organizing to resist it.
Senator Sinema has stated the intention to maintain the filibuster at all costs
rather than pass a voting rights law that could block the Republican coup.
Her argument is that the Republicans could benefit from the absence of
the filibuster, if they take the Senate. That's true — if they hold
the House and the presidency.
But if that happens, they would abolish the filibuster the first day.
They abolished the filibuster for nominations years ago, which is how
they put three right-wing extremists onto the Supreme Court.
Sinema's heroic "sacrifice" is a bogus excuse not to resist the next coup.
Indigenous pipeline-resisters in Canada point out that the courts
almost always side with the pipeline and against them.
This author has no doubt that the pattern is racism at work.
Is that pattern due to racism? It could be so. Or it could be due to
plutocracy. Or it could be due to a combination of both causes.
It isn't valid to presume a priori that the cause is mostly racism,
when we know how far the Canadian government will go to support
pipeline construction
and tar sands oil.
We could tell how significant racism is as a factor if we could
contrast these statistics with comparable statistics about
non-indigenous Canadians. The article doesn't give any.
Perhaps there are no comparable statistics. Perhaps non-indigenous
landowners don't oppose pipelines. Perhaps the government routs
pipelines through indigenous land to spare the white Canadians' land.
If so, that choice could be directly because of racism, or because the
whites have more political clout to resist with, or both.
It could be the case that the indigenous pipeline resisters in Canada
have special opportunities to sue, based on the rights of their
tribes, which no one else has. If so, I appreciate their exercising
those opportunities to defend the climate. They are fighting for all
of us.
Alas, that would mean this gives no opportunity to measure to what
extent the Canadian courts are racist in enforcing Canadian law.
(satire) *"We're Still Gonna Go To Vegas, Buddy," Says U.S. Soldier
Holding Dying Drone In His Arms.
*US Once Planned To Kill Assange But Gives "Assurances" It Won't Again.*
Cruel US prison conditions are a national shame, but in addition to
threatening Julian Assange, the US demand to prosecute Assange also
threatens freedom of the press.
That is the biggest issue here.
(satire) *Critics Warn Biden’s Plan To Remove Lead Pipes Would Put
Millions Of Potential Murder Weapons In Circulation.*
Omicron's rapid spread is convincing many Britons to wisely stop
visiting restaurants and theaters. To prevent them from closing
permanently, the UK should bring back its plan to support the workers
while there is no work for them.
I expect the US to need a similar policy for the same reason.
Here's an idea: furlough payments for workers should be limited to
those who get vaccinated.
Thomas Piketty's recommendations for equality.
Above all, we need to replace current property taxes with wealth taxes.
Other measures are required to reduce male-female economic inequality.
One interesting point is that the non-wealthy people in Europe are using
sustainable levels of resources. It is the wealthy 10% that use too much.
Ideas for the federal government to undo the segregation (and poverty
for blacks) that its policies intentionally created during the 1930s.
*Catastrophic Global Disorder Beckons Unless We Act Swiftly on Climate.*
Manchin says he refuses to allow extension of the child tax credit.
He has been playing a dishonest political game for months.
When it expires, which is very soon, millions of poor Americans will
be desperate. If they camp around Manchin's house, it might make
him change his mind.
Millions will also be required to start paying towards their unpayable
student loans, unless Biden cancels them.
(satire) *Amazon Fires Employees Who Didn’t Clock Out After Getting
Buried In Rubble.
(satire) *Texas School's Unbanned Books Down To 3 Copies Of Tom
Clancy's "Threat Vector".*
*Top US Banks and Investors Responsible for Nearly as Much Emissions as
Russia, Report Finds.*
*Deforestation has made outdoor work unsafe for millions of people in
the tropics over the past 15 years, a study has found.*
*Wood burners cause nearly half of urban air pollution cancer risk.*
That is despite the fact that only a small fraction of houses are
burning wood.
The study reports that the pollution from burning wood is especially
dangerous. Just because it's natural, that doesn't make it safe.
*Warmer winters are happening across the globe, and can be drivers of
catastrophic weather events and profound changes.*
Despite a few spectacular theft raids on stores, theft in California
is still significantly less than in 2019.
Biden appointed a loyal friend of fossil fuel business to hand out
infrastructure contracts.
Bolsonaro and his remaining followers try to cause havoc — and
spreading Covid-19 is one of the ways. Brazil has approved
vaccination for children age 5-11, so Bolsonaro wants to expose
officials who made the decision to danger of murder.
The Sami (formerly known as Lapps) have words for many different kinds
of snow. However, due to climate mayhem, they are getting a kind of
snow that they never used to see. It generates a layer of ice that
blocks reindeer's access to plants they need to eat, so they go hungry.
Credulous believers think that 5G radio bands emit dangerous
radiation. Some wear "protective" necklaces which really do emit
dangerous radiation.
Why believe the claim that something is better for your health, just
because someone claims unsubstantuated knowledge of the matter?
Without a proper double-blind experiment, they can't really know. The
usual explanation for such claims is that they are hoping fools will
pay them money.
*Republicans are plotting to destroy democracy from within.*
Putin's idea of how to lower tension in Europe is to demand a list of
military concessions that would give Russia dominating military power.
He must think that Europan leaders are cowards that can be terrified
into surrender.
It might be good for NATO to limit troop deployments to its eastern
regions, perhaps 200 or 300 miles width extending in from their
borders with non-NATO coutries, if in return Russia agrees to limit
troop deployments to its western regions, 200 or 300 miles width
extending from its border with other coutries including the Baltic
countries, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. This symmetrical agreement
would give neither side a military advantage but would discourage an
attack by either side.
After the tornadoes, Kentucky is hit by heavy rains.
A house that remains open to the elements during rain can be ruined by
mold in a few days. Many of these houses will be good for no use
except demolition.
It is not clear to what extent climate catastrophe is responsible for the
tornadoes, but it certainly has already caused bigger rains. Will anyone
teach the people of Kentucky that the small initial wave of global heating
has ruined people's lives? Their Republican officials will not.
The UK and Australia are planning to sign a business-supremacy treaty.
Does it include an ISDS clause (I Sue Democratic States)?
The article does not say, but if it was developed
out of the TPP then it probably does.
*Capitol attack panel subpoenas author of PowerPoint plan for coup.*
*Serbia blocks Rio Tinto’s plan to mine lithium after protests.*
The general worldwide practice in operating mines is to do only the
required minimum to protect the environment from damage caused by
the mine or the wastes it generates. Eventually the mine is
exhausted and the company makes legal arrangements to leave the mess
for others to pay for. It makes sense not to allow companies to run
mines that way.
But we do need the minerals that we can get only by mining. So what
is the right way to run a mine?
Does anyone know a way to operate a mine and protect the environment
properly? Or of research to determine how?
A non-polluting mine might be much more expensive. Properly run mines
may be uncompetitive in today's business environment. Wise countries
will respond, "In 20 years, when other countries have allowed mining
to poison their water, our minerals will be even more valuable,
valuable enough to make a non-polluting mine profitable. In the mean
time, we can wait."
*[Some European] supermarkets drop Brazilian beef products linked to deforestation.*
The plague of mice in part of New South Wales destroyed flood protection
and made the disaster of the big rain much worse in some places.
*"Really abnormal" storms and tornadoes tear through Great Plains and midwest.*
Rep. Jim Jordan sent Mark Meadows on Jan 5 a proposed plan for Pence to
override the election results.
The UK proposes strict criteria for giving their former Afghan
employees asylum: a "high and imminent risk” of threat to their life.
The city of Chicago will pay 5 million dollars compensation to
Anjanette Young for handcuffing her nude after breaking into her
apartment with guns drawn.
They raided her apartment by mistake, but even when they have a valid
reason to search someone's apartment, they should not treat per like
dirt. Not everyone suspected is guilty, and even culpable criminals
shouldn't be treated like that.
*Lawyers say their conversations with incarcerated people are being
recorded and analyzed by private companies in at least nine US
states.*
A mega-rainstorm may have cured California's drought, but it has done
great damage too.
*Freelancer Soe Naing was arrested in Yangon [a week ago] while taking photos of a
‘silent strike’ protest against military rule.* He has died in jail.
Chances are he was tortured.
*The NHS will soon be overwhelmed unless coherent and strict rules are
applied to social distancing.*
The same goes for US hospitals. Hundreds of thousands of Americans
could die in the next few months, avoidably, due to the failure to follow
safety precautions and the failure to enforce them.
Justice and public health require supporting people who get sick from
working or commuting, or who must not take the risk of catching Covid-19 by
going to work.
The governments that sustain the vaccine monopoly could have avoided
this by permitting more vaccine production. We could have vaccinated
most of the world by now and perhaos prevented the Omicron variant
from evolving.
New Zealand plans to override zoning so as to allow apartment
buildings basically anywhere.
Pelosi defended the practice of investments by legislators in shares
in corporations.
It may not be a harmful conflict of interest each and every time —
but often enough, it is that.
*Freakish wind storm brings "dust bowl" conditions to
tornado-devastated US states.*
Robert Reich explains his idea of how the mainstream media get their bias.
*Debunking Pharma Lies, Experts Identify 100+ Firms Ready to Make mRNA
Vaccines.*
The article falls into the error of talking about "intellectual property"
as if it meant some concrete things that could be useful in making drugs.
(satire) *Lakers Fans Frustrated With
Volatile Hot Dog Prices In Crypto.Com Arena.*
*Democrat introduces [federal] legislation requiring gun owners safely
store firearms, in wake of Oxford school shooting.*
Dollar General stores are often fined for being unsafe for working in.
The fines are evidently insufficient to achieve the desired effect of
making the store improve safety.
Global heating has become tied up with extinction of many species.
A former high official of the Indian police describes how thugs in India
are taught to practice torture and to think of it as a form of group
solidarity.
More about Dr Asthana.
Explaining his office, Director General of Police.
The UK is planning to relax regulations on toxic chemicals. I think that
the real purpose of leaving the EU was to allow businesses to mistreat people
in ways the EU does not permit.
The US continues slowly moving away from capital punishment, but
right-wing politicians promote it so as to stick their tongues out
at the idea of being humane.
Australia has rejected a gas drilling project!
This is an amazing change in the position of a government that has
been resolutely planet-roaster for years, and climate defense activism
made it happen.
France has restricted travel from the UK because of the spread of
Omicron there.
It's not a punishment, it's self-protection.
Meanwhile, by next week at the latest the UK may as well end its ban
on travelers from some African countries. Travel from those places
will not be a significant cause of more cases of Omicron in the UK,
not compared with transmission within the UK.
Mississippi's Republicans blocked federal funds to expand Medicaid on principle. The principle being that poor people and blacks should suffer. If "god" had wanted them not to suffer, he would have made them not get sick.
*Iran and the UN inspector have reached an agreement on the imminent
reinstallation of cameras at the Karaj nuclear facility, a move that
is seen as indispensable to keeping alive the broader nuclear talks
and the lifting of US sanctions on Tehran.*
I think Iran has decided to get serious about making an agreement
rather than trying to make the US desperate for an agreement.
Of the patients who were hospitalized with Covid-19 and still had problems
when they got out, at least half still have problems a year later.
10% still have brain fog.
*Kentucky candle factory bosses threatened to fire those who fled tornado, say
workers.*
*Would a union have saved them?*
*California ex-sheriff's deputy charged with pouring scalding water on
mentally ill inmate.*
*Nobel laureates call for 2% cut to military spending
worldwide.*
In London, if you have the symptoms of a cold, it's most likely to be
Covid-19 Omicron.
That may be true in many countries in a few weeks from now.
There are too many cattle in the Netherlands, and the pollution they
generate is damaging waterways. The government has a plan to
drastically decrease the number of cattle.
The cattle also produce methane,
which is a bigger problem than manure because it is a global
problem.
The world is considering using ammonia
as fuel, instead of petroleum. The efficient way to transport
hydrogen fuel is to convert it to ammonia.
Instead of reducing cattle to avoid ammonia pollution, perhaps
new systems for collecting cows' manure and urine can turn that
waste into a resource.
If it is necessary to reduce the amount of cattle farming in
the Netherlands, the state should not bow down to businesses by
begging and paying them to comply with laws. At least, not for
farms that are corporations. That would be putting businesses
above the public — plutocracy, in other words.
Instead, the state should tax farms based on how much pollution
they generate.
Amazon supports anti-vax organizations.
*The Class War —” Waged and Being Won by the Rich —” Is Destroying US
Democracy.*
Over 8% of Britons will be in danger of being stripped of their
British citizenship at any time, without a trial, without even telling them,
under the Tory plans.
They would find out what had been done to them only if they visited
some other country and were stopped from returning, stateless and
trapped in whatever country they had tried to visit.
*Louisiana Policy Intended to Reform Solitary Confinement Still Leaves People
in Indefinite Lockdown.*
The EPA has failed for 4 years to regulate neonicotinoid pesticides in
accord with their tendency to kill many insect species, not just
pests. Now a lawsuit calls on the EPA to regulate them.
*Documents link Huawei to Uyghur surveillance projects, report claims.*
The US states that try to force women to have babies do little to help those babies grow up to be capable and have good lives.
(satire) *GOP Warns Loophole In New Bill Could Still Allow Teachers To
Sing About Critical Race Theory.*
White supremacists have constructed a false picture of what "critical
race theory" is, and are using manipulative language to lump it
together with some bigoted ideas as an excuse to prohibit both.
(satire) *Political Analysts Say GOP Could Take House If A Few Key
Assassinations Break Their Way.*
In some parts of India, the high-caste Hindu fanatics condemn eating
any meat, or even eggs. They try to impose that rule on everyone through
violent bullying.
Mark Meadows' log of texts shows that the wrecker's son had informed
the White House that rioters were attacking the Capitol and implored
the wrecker to "lead now" with an "Oval Office address."
The suspicion is that this was, for him, notice that things were
already satisfactory.
An Antarctic ice shelf is on the verge of shattering. When it does,
it will allow the Thwaites glacier to flow much vaster into the ocean
and raise sea level faster.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to reduce protection on several
endangered species based on no scientific grounds.
It seems to be continuing with destructive orders that the wrecker
gave. I would suspect this is because of the saboteurs that he appointed
to the department.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Women's Health Protection Act. Among many other things, this will legislate to protect abortion rights even if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade.
A US Navy sailor is accused of setting a small fire that totaled the
amphibious assault ship, Bonhomme Richard.
It seems to me that a more important question than who or what started
the fire is, why was the ship vulnerable to being destroyed by the
setting of a small fire? That is a lousy characteristic for a
warship. In battle, even small hits can start a fire. A ship that
can be destroyed so easily is not a very good ship for a navy.
*Protesting voting rights activists arrested as Biden meets with Manchin.*
I tend to think that it would be more effective to protest Manchin in
West Virginia than in DC.
US citizens: call on Senate Democrats to tax the rich and pay child
care workers a living wage now.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
*The network of election lawyers who are making it harder for
Americans to vote.*
Proposal: to prosecute the countries that are blocking generic production
of Covid-19 vaccines in the International Criminal Court.
The article makes an interesting suggestion, but its analysis calls for
clarification. It is not correct to say that the countries such as
Canada, Germany, the UK, Japan, and South Korea are "hoarding vaccines".
The real vaccine hoarders are the companies that make the vaccines.
They block the independent production of vaccines so that everyone has to
buy from them; this increases the price they can charge, and thus
increases their profits.
Countries such as Canada, Germany, and so on are culpable for helping
the companies do that. But they are not exactly "hoarding" the
vaccine themselves. In criminological terms, they are accessories.
What is the motivation of the leaders of those countries for
supporting that deadly profiteering? One obvious possibility is that
the leaders are corrupt — that they get personal advantages from
serving powerful businesses. This is how plutocracy works.
But I hesitate to suppose that their motives are naked, simple
corruption. I wonder if those leaders believe their countries have a
real national interest in supporting artificial scarcity. That
would enable them to believe they are somehow serving their countries,
not merely helping to kill for profit.
It's possible that they really believe the propaganda built around the
term "intellectual property". Please join me in refusing to use that
term, not solely because of the propaganda but also because it
generalizes about laws that are too different for generalizing.
Lukashenko has sentenced a would-be opposition candidate to 18 years
in prison for opposition.
US citizens: call on Congress to regulate Facebook.
I could sign this petition because it does not call for censorship of the substantive opinions people can advocate on Facebook. The sort of regulation I think is called for would be in the algorithm that picks things to show each user, that come from people the user did not ask to follow.
*Barbados can be a beacon for the region -– if it avoids some of its
neighbours’ mistakes.*
Children can learn the value of money at age 7, and this can lead them
to better skills for planning ahead.
(satire) *TV Network Refuses To Air "Miracle On 34th Street" For
Outdated Depictions Of Hope, Joy.*
The US Constitution arguably requires states to run free and fair
elections.
Alas, right-wing justices on the Supreme Court have ruled that the court
cannot enforce this in substance.
(satire) *New Proposed Wealth Tax Would Target Americans With Circular
Driveways.*
American generals that lose in war are rewarded with riches once the
"revolving door" brings them to serve on the board of a military
contractor.
The old Reaganite order is dying, but the new progressive order is unable
to be born.
Biden's officials held a large auction of oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico,
and said that they had no choice because of a court order.
However, government lawyers had concluded that the court order did not
require holding any specific auction.
Republican state election officials elected in 2020 are trying to cast
doubt on the presidential election, while insisting that there is no doubt
about the validity of the elections they won.
But … they were the same election!
US citizens: call on Secretary Buttigeig to release a full economic justice and racial equity plan for Public Transit spending.
Cities need trees — each tree does a lot more good than a lawn.
The Pentagon concluded that no one was individually negligent in
ordering a drone attack against a vehicle that in fact contained
friendly noncombatants — rather, it was a system failure.
I do not see anything implausible about that. System failures are
quite common.
As for whether it is true that no one individual was culpable, I don't
know, but someone studying the report might be able to see if it
appears to be covering up anything.
The Pentagon said that it has adopted recommendations to fix the
system's flaws. The article doesn't give the details.
In order to determine, years from now, whether the recommendations
have achieved their goal, we need the US military to be ready to admit
deadly mistakes in the future. In the past it has had a pattern of
denying them and covering them up.
Has the US paid reparations to the relatives of the deceased?
Vaccination requirements for for group events, and restaurants, substantially increased vaccination in many countries.
How the US is gradually murdering Julian Assange.
I must rebuke the author for lumping together the corrupt dictator Ngo
Dinh Diem, who served the US badly because of his corruption and
repressive leanings, with people who opposed the US or its economic
empire.
I rebuke him even more for equating Biden with the wrecker. Biden is
no Sanders, but he is trying to save the US from the out-and-out fascism
and supports changes for the better, blocked by Manchin and Sinema as
well as the Republicans.
But then, Hedges says there is no difference between Sanders and the
wrecker. Hedges takes an extreme view of politics: either you're
rebelling against the US government or a toady. I don't agree.
Customers of Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citibank: call on
them to stop investing in climate destruction.
You could
also move your money
to
a smaller
bank that invests in local businesses and housing. Those banks
do lots of bad things, including helping
to provoke
the economic crisis of 2008,
and defrauding customers.
The Department of Justice has promised not to be quite as lenient with
crimes committed by corporations. This article reports and gives
advice.
Most news publishers, universities, businesses, and government
agencies avoid the term "corporate crime" — it is impolite to suggest
that laws be applied to corporations. They replace the term with
euphemisms.
*Afghan health system "close to collapse due to sanctions on Taliban."*
The US fumbled badly in the "Democracy Summit" when Taiwan's minister
Audrey Tang displayed a map showing the democratic countries and
tyrannical countries in the far east.
It's evidently pertinent and important, so if you invite various people to
speak about democracy and the far east, someone's likely to bring it up.
The US in effect set a trap for itself and fell in.
Audrey Tang also advocates free software within the government of
Taiwan. I hope she does not get punished for being the occasion for
embarrassment.
Global heating is expected to make Australia's soil release carbon —
a positive feedback loop that will spoil Australia's optimistic plans.
Craig Murray explains how the appeals about Julian Assange's extradition
will take years, and all the while he will be in a prison that subjects him
to inadequate medical care — he has already had a stroke.
The UK may hope he dies before the process ends.
Rebecca Solnit: *America witnessed a coup attempt. Now it’s
sleep-walking into another disaster.*
The Republican Party has become all coup, all the time.
Malta is the first European country to legalize possessing marijuana
for personal use.
*Group of women asks US supreme court to overturn topless sunbathing ban.*
Whatever your sex, sunbathing is bad for your skin —
you can even get skin cancer. It's wiser to be nude in the shade.
A report about mergers of giant US media companies and how they have
affected the public.
*D.C. council renames the street in front of the Saudi embassy after Jamal
Khashoggi.*
This is following the rub-the-tyrant's-nose-in-it policy.
Elon Musk's company SpaceX is buying up houses near its headquarters
in Texas. Some homeowners say it is offering far too little.
Governor Newsom plans to turn the Republicans' everybody-sue-'em approach
to gun control.
The everybody-sue-'em approach is inherently dangerous, regardless of
what it is used for. It should not be used to regulate abortions, or
guns, or anything else. No constitutional rights are safe if that
everybody-sue-'em approach is permitted.
Anyone worthy to sit on the Supreme Court would have realized that
this approach must be rejected regardless of what the issue is. We
have to hope that seeing it used against a favorite right-wing
recruiting stand will convince the extremists on the court to change
their minds about that approach.
But I expect they will instead fabricate inconsistent excuses to
permit the approach when used for right-wing purposes and reject it
when used for progressive purposes.
Jay Rosen: *The first thing news organizations have to do is announce
they are pro-democracy, pro-truth, pro-science, pro-evidence and
pro-voting.*
(satire) *Army Receives 15-Yard Penalty For Drone-Striking The Kicker.*
40 years after the El Mozote massacre, El Salvador is prosecuting the
surviving perpetrators — US-trained soldiers of the military government.
The right-wing current president is trying to protect them.
In response to atrocities such as this, dissidents in the US demanded
closure of the School of the Americas. The government responded by
changing its name
and hoping people would forget about it.
Experience in the UK says that Omicron often spreads to everyone in
a get-together, and comes on very fast.
They are asking people to take a home Covid test right before going to
any get-together. The UK is making those tests readily available.
The US seems not to want to pay for them.
Also, they are asking even vaccinated people who had contact with an
infected person to take an at-home Covid test every day for the next week.
This is to slow the spread of Omicron.
Of all the Britons who say they love freedom, few are opposing the bill
to sentence protesters to a year in prison.
I support the right to protest to demand the freedom to go
unvaccinated — though I think it is wrong actually go unvaccinated
and risk spreading disease. I hope that everyone who supports the
right to protest will join in the campaign to preserve that right.
Dr Rebecca Gompertz and her colleagues provide abortions where that is
forbidden, on ships and by telemedicine.
When asylum seekers try to go to Britain in a boat, one of them has to
steer. The UK prosecutes whoever does that.
*Beijing is aiming for global ascendancy – but its leader’s vision of
world dominion is centralised, oppressive and totalitarian.*
*Reporters Without Borders calls increasing media oppression in China a
"great leap backwards" and says Hong Kong journalism is "in freefall."*
*In a society driven by "gotchas" and self-righteousness, let’s be more
ready to recognise our own failings and less hasty to judge others’.*
*New rules on UK arms trade makes it "easier" to sideline human rights.*
*How elite [expensive] hobbies let billionaires pay no tax.*
The don't even limit themselves to the deductions that the law allows.
Bogus Johnson has built hatred for the Tory Party to the point where
Labour might win. But that won't do anything great: Starmer has
made sure of that.
Freezing sperm and tissue from endangered animals is an effective way
of increasing the preserved genetic diversity of a species — provided there is
still a living population to mate with sperm, or host clone embryos.
*UK universities took £89m [in "gifts"] from oil firms in last four years.*
*Climate Critics Warn of "Big Gaps" in Biden Plan to Eliminate Overseas Fossil
Fuel Funding.*
A whistleblower has reported that the UK officials responsible for
giving asylum to Afghans were shockingly negligent about their job.
They put off reading thousands of urgent messages about people who
would be in danger.
One senior official stayed on vacation during the period.
The UK government seems to have been poisoned by the attitude that
no job deserves to be attended with urgency.
Nowadays the government seems to be stopping the whole project
by depriving it of funds.
South Korea is pushing to make daily life possible without any
presencial interactions with other people.
Is it possible to purchase from an "untact" store, cafe or take-out
store without identifying yourself and paying cash? If you live in
South Korea, please tell me what you experience?
Everyone: call on big delivery companies to
switch fast
to electric vehicles.
Many of these companies deliver for stores that require purchasers to
run nonfree software, require them to identify themselves, and don't
allow paying cash. I urge you to refuse to buy things that way,
electric vehicles or no.
US citizens: insist that the new USPS chair must fire Postmaster DeJoy.
(satire) *Kim Jong-Un Eagerly Waiting For Inner Circle To Get Big
Enough So He Can Start Executing People Again.*
Jesse Jackson: *Should Parents Be Held Responsible for Their
Children’s Unspeakable Gun Violence?*
Here's one thing that is clear to me: if we are going to punish
parents their children's violence, we must insist on objective
standards for what parents should not do. Otherwise, we risk that
punishing the parents become an automatic consequence of a killing
by the child, regardless of how the parents acted, because of
the desire to punish.
*The extra $25 billion that the U.S. Congress is moving to pour into
the Pentagon's overflowing coffers is the exact sum researchers say is
needed to produce enough coronavirus vaccines to achieve widespread
global inoculation.*
Whether this would actually end the Covid-19 pandemic is not clear, but it
would certainly reduce the harm.
*How a terrorism law in India is being used to silence Modi’s critics.*
UK banks are closing bank accounts of charities that work with Kenya
in ways that either indicate bizarre incompetence, or something worse.
It seems to me like another form of "hostile environment".
The natural resources needed for food for the human population are
under strain — depleted or damaged.
In Wisconsin, fanatical Republicans determined discredit the 2020
election and undermine future elections, are conducting a secret
"audit" of ballots from 2020.
(satire) *Executives Urge Boycott Of Kellogg's After CEO Receives
Insulting Salary Offer Of $11 Million A Year.*
Nearly all the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against
a bill to limit federal officials' power to abuse the government system.
The only explanation I can think of is that they want future
Republicans to engage in abuses.
Vaping nicotine tends to cause erectile dysfunction.
When former prisoners find a job, the complex requirements of probation often
make it impossible to keep the job. The US should change that.
Human Rights Watch reports that Tigrayan fighters murdered civilian
prisoners
and said this was retaliation because an Amhara militia was fighting
them on the battlefield.
You can't equate militias with civilians who are prisoners.
Women often face criticism if they speak as loud as men do.
If the Supreme court overturns Roe v Wade, that could damage the legal
idea of a right to privacy in the US, and that could in turn threaten
gay rights, contraceptives and fertility treatments.
Rep. Jayapal is pushing to end Medicare's privatization experiment.
The fossil fuel industry's subtle tactics for blocking decarbonization.
(satire) *Smithsonian Acquires Coat Hanger Neil Armstrong And Buzz
Aldrin Used To Get Back Inside Lunar Module After Locking Selves Out.*
Extinction Rebellion activists faced charges for blocking a train line
in London. The jury acquitted them.
(satire) *New Zillow Feature Lets Users Track Happy Lives Of People
Who Outbid Them For Dream House.*
*Arizona students stage hunger strike to urge Sinema to support voting reform.*
They give our country hope, but others will need to build on their beginning.
The Supreme Court's decision effectively upheld the Texas law
prohibiting almost all abortions, and permitting vigilantees to sue
anyone that assists a pregnant woman in getting an abortion.
The little sliver of the decision that went against the Texas law is
a minor detail that won't in practice change much.
The authors are certain that the court will overturn Roe v Wade next
spring. But in the mean time, they have allowed staten laws to
undermine the constitutional structure of US law, just to attack
abortion rights six months sooner.
The prohibition of abortion will motivate millions of women, and
millions of men, to organize politically. But they will not be
organizing in a democracy that would give them a chance to change the
government. Republicans are putting an end to that.
Mark Meadows had a copy of a presentation offering the wrecker various
options to overturn the presidential election, one being a coup.
*Biden administration drug czar says it's time to treat drug addiction like a
chronic disease.*
For a "drug czar" to advocate harm reduction is a big advance,
even though it doesn't directly change anything.
To continue US fossil fuel extraction using fracking would cost 25
trillion dollars, and enormous resources.
Renewable energy would be far more efficient.
(satire) *Senators Explain What Gun Control Means To Them.*
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports a record number of journalists
in prison around the world, for the sixth year in a row.
Why federally-funded universal child care services would be a wise
investment for the US.
Alternatively, the US should provide adequate welfare benefits for
single parents so that they don't live in poverty.
The European Union is considering a directive to give many sorts of gig workers
the legal rights of employees.
This could be a big step forward against the companies' mistreatment
of their workers, but won't change the way they mistreat customers:
requiring them to run nonfree software and identify themselves.
I absolutely refuse to be a mistreated in that way, so I have never
used any of those companies.
The food delivery companies additionally parasitize the restaurants
whose food they deliver.
Coastal animals are colonizing floating plastic garbage.
This enables them to move to other coastlines, where they did not
previously live, and mess up the ecosystems there.
US citizens: phone your senators at +1
(202) 224-3121 and say not to leave Washington until the Senate
passes the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights
Advancement Act.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass
the Freedom
to Vote Act.
US citizens: call on Congress
to weatherize
low-income homes now.
US citizens: call on Biden to fill the rest of the Federal Reserve
Board with progressive leaders who will take on the big banks to fight the
climate crisis.
Rally for Julian Assange at 3pm on December 18
in Fresh Pond Mall, 186 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge, Mass.
Sea-level rise (caused by global heating) is making sea-side towns in Ghana
uninhabitable.
*Staff employed [in Afghanistan] to teach British values and the
English language refused the right to come to the UK.*
This decision teaches an ironic lesson about Tory values.
Committee to Protect Journalists: *Number of journalists in jail
around the world at new high, says survey.*
Biden will start another effort to eliminate incandescent light bulbs.
The wrecker blocked the previous attempt.
The planned gradual phase-out — details are not given — could be
worse than merely slow. It could give a Republican the opportunity to
cancel the change in 2025.
* It's up to you and me to decide what it means to be a socialist in 21st
century America.*
A survey of preparedness against future pandemics found that countries
scored 39 out of 100, on the average.
Efforts to prevent the emergence of pandemics score even lower.
Plutocratists have found another excuse for a subsidy to big business:
to produce more IC chips in the US.
The traditional way to encourage domestic production is with an import
tariff. That gives the same preference to domestic production, but
instead of giving money to big businesses, it collects money from
big businesses. Since big businesses have too much money anyway,
the latter is better.
Governments in the US have been subsidizing businesses more and more,
justifying it by supposed trickle-down benefits that often fail to
happen. Americans are starting to recognize that the net result is to
transfer public money to businesses.
If the US government insists on "investing in" US chip manufacturing,
it should invest by buying stock in those businesses. At least that way
the public treasury will benefit if they do well.
In addition, it would be useful to prohibit encryption systems which
don't let the owner of a computer read and write the keys — such as
TPMs and the Management Engine.
China is trying to pass as a democracy by muddling the concept of
democracy.
In the US, the Republican Party (following the bullshitter) is doing
likewise, with its voter suppression,
gerrymandering,
and plans to arbitrarily reverse elections when it dislikes the outcome.
China proposed a policy of compelling Communist Party members to have
more babies, again resembling the Republican Party.
Of the two, the Communist Party was less nasty, because it withdrew the
suggestion in response to lots of criticism.
A judge appointed by the wrecker has put a stay on Biden's vaccine mandates
for employees of federal contractors.
Republicans believe that the most important cause in the world, what they
should be willing to die for, is keeping Covid-19 going strong in the US.
*Filibuster Reform for Debt Ceiling Fight But Not Voting Rights or
Reproductive Freedom?*
*Senate Dems Help Torpedo Resolution That Would Have Blocked $650 Million Arms
Sale to [Salafi Arabia].*
A guard at a UK deportation prison says that the culture of the guards is racist and it "radicalizes" the staff into racism.
*Amazon Employee Describes "Sheer Brutality" of Work [in an Amazon warehouse] to Senators.*
Loujain al-Hathloul, imprisoned women's rights activist, is suing
three US intelligence officers who she alleges helped the UAE crack her phone, which enabled the UAR to arrest her and send her to Salafi
Arabia to be imprisoned.
*California residents will be required to use green waste bins to
dispose of food [waste] which municipalities will turn into compost or
biogas.*
I wish I could give food waste to someone that would compost it.
It's too complex for me to do, because I'm non compost mentis ;-}.
*New York City’s noncitizens will soon be allowed to vote in local elections.*
The Senate is blocking confirmation of Biden's nominee for combating
antisemitism, because she criticizes a Republican senator for a racist
remark. Many strong supporters of the Republican Party are antisemitic, and
the wrecker said that American Nazis include "fine people",
so perhaps his followers prefer to deactivate efforts against antisemitism.
Verizon is collecting browsing records from customers even if they already said they wanted to "opt out" from such collection.
My understanding is that every ISP in the US keeps records of what
network sites are contacted from each connection (mobile or fixed),
for government surveillance. The only thing a subscriber can "opt
out" of is Verizon's use of that same data for its own profit.
The thing to do is not let Verizon see what site you talk to.
* Ancient shrines, oral folklore and hip-hop cyphers are all part of a
rich artistic heritage being ‘hollowed out’ in Xinjiang say Uyghur
exiles and scholars.*
China has done similar things to Tibetan culture for decades.
As agricultural runoff kills Florida's seagrass, the manatees are starving.
Florida is hand-feeding the remaining manatees, but that solution won't work
for wild manatees over the long term.
The UK agreed to extradite Julian Assange,
accepting the US's substantively vacuous assurances not to subject Assange
to certain specific kinds of brainwashing and mind-killing conditions.
More information here and here
The worst damage comes from the general decision to extradite journalists for publishing whistleblower reports.
That will harm journalism and thus also democracy, world wide, for
as long as democracy and journalism exist.
*Britain can't complain about global corruption — it's helping to fund it.*
*The streets of many towns and cities across Myanmar were deserted on
Friday as the public held a "silent strike" to protest against the
military government,*
An incomplete list of gross political misconduct against Bogus Johnson.
An incomplete list of accusations of dishonesty against Bogus Johnson.
Will Tories exile British citizens for protesting?
Columbia University has threatened to fire graduate students who are
on strike.
40 million Americans have college debt. Millions of them with low incomes
keep paying and paying, but the interest they are charged is bigger than
the payments. They will spend the rest of their lives crushed by debt.
Britons revile the "We can have parties and spread disease" Tories.
It seems they had parties in various official quarters, last year.
Mining companies want to mine the metals from undersea vents. The
total area of these vents is small, and many species live only there.
Mining could wipe them out in decades.
A study finds that (some) tropical forests that have been mostly
destroyed regrow quickly, and after 20 years are going strong again.
Leaving them alone is better than planting new trees.
I expect that these results vary depending on the location and on what sort
of destruction occured. It would be interesting to get more details.
The Patriotic Millionaires rebuked Senator Sinema for defending the
carried interest loopole, which cuts taxes for private equity funds.
I think those are the same funds that have destroyed many US companies
by selling off their valuable assets and leaving them with debts that
will force them to shut down.
Greenpeace activists blocked doors of the Royal Bank of Canada,
demanding that it stop funding climate disaster.
Activists also offer the bank's executives charred wood from houses
burned by wildfires in Canada.
Right-wing Democrats joined with Republicans to reject Biden's nominee for head of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Perhaps she was inclined to do the part of her job which includes
investigating misconduct by banks.
Kellogg's workers voted to reject a "two-tier" contract
that would pay all new workers less than the old ones.
In Australia, Labor (much like US Democrats, mostly plutocratist)
is appealing to Christianity to mobilize people for climate defense.
I wonder if that would work in the US.
*Styrofoam trash adds to antibiotic resistance crisis.*
An analysis of lab experiments found that microplastics, in realistic
concentrations, can harm human cells.
An astroturf campaign to block a wind farm — in the name of protecting the environment — is funded by oil company.
Kim Potter is on trial for killing Daunte Wright at a traffic stop.
She says that she thought she was firing her taser.
Either Potter grabbed the pistol intentionally and pretended it was
her taser, or she grabbed the pistol unthinkingly by mistake. I have
no particular insight into which one it was.
I am sure it is possible to make such mistakes, and I don't think it
serves any moral or practical purpose to punish them. This wasn't the
usual bullshit lie that thugs tell after killing someone for no valid
reason. However, I am sure there are some thugs who are so
habituated to lying that they would be capable of intentionally
drawing a pistol while shouting "Taser, taser!"
Whistleblower Daniel Hale, who told us how the US covers up killing
thousands of civilians with drone attacks, has received the
International Whistleblower Award.
The US accuses El Salvador of negotiating a deal with gang leaders to reduce
the violence of their combat for control of drug trade.
I expect that this was the best option available to El Salvador. I
wonder if it includes being less violent to the populace as well as to
each other. Gang violence and threats are often the cause that drives
Salvadoreans to flee to the US for seeking asylum.
Reality Winner explains her motives for informing the public about how
Russia had penetrated some US election systems.
The article also explains why each side of US politics was unhappy
with the facts she revealed.
Rep. Pascrell talks about an investigation into policies that make
the US an attractive spot for some kinds of tax-dodging.
*Biden signs order for government to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.*
This is totally insufficient, but it is something Biden can do
without getting the Senate to agree. It is disappointing to fall
into the fashionable "net zero" pitfall, though.
The UK estimates that it probably has 10,000 cases of the
fast-spreading Omicron variant.
At this point, I think that there is no benefit in blocking travel
from the African countries where Omicron was initially discovered.
The number of additional cases likely to arrive from there is surely
insignificant compared with the number of people catching Omicron in
the UK.
New Zealand proposes to ban tobacco.
Tobacco is a deadly, addictive drug, and eliminating it would be a
substantial improvement. But prohibition of an addictive drug tends
to backfire.
US citizens: call on the FDIC to limit banks' investments in fossil fuels
and in industries that bet on heavy use of fossil fuels.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Protecting Our Democracy
Act.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
* A wave of shoplifting crimes are attracting
front-page news, while the $15bn stolen by corporations from
workers receives no coverage at all.*
Of course, what drives the headlines is notoriety. A video of someone
shoplifting is surprising, since we expect those thieves to try to
avoid notice. Theft of workers' wages happens quietly. It is a very
important problem, but it is not news.
People get arrested for stealing products from stores, but stealing
wages requires a lawsuit. The lawsuit requires private funds, and no
one will be arrested for the theft.
If bosses were arrested for stealing wages, they might stop. That is
the kind of crime that punishment ought to deter effectively.
So why don't we do that?
I suppose it is partly because business owners have more political
power than workers. But also because businesses do this by making
unfair rules and then enforcing them. To stop that requires a trial
to judge the rules.
If some of these rules were standardized by law, it would be easier
to arrest bosses for trying to impose illegal rules on workers.
Subcontracting work is popular partly because it allows the company or
agency that pays for the work to avoid responsibility for the work.
Cutting pay and speeding up the work are one common result; another is
that the work is done badly and people have no recourse for it. I
advocate laws to restrict subcontracting to a much lower level.
Egypt has released Patrick Zaki on bail. He still faces years in
prison for publishing his experience confronting the prejudice against
Egyptian Christians.
Someone commented "Thank God" about his release. I find that
particularly ironic, given that religion is the cause of his problems.
*Abstinence-based recovery nearly killed me — the Tories’ ‘war on
drugs’ won’t work.*
The Tories have proposed a bill to privatize the NHS in substance.
They have made the horrible and inadequate US medical system (horrible
and inadequate if you're not wealthy) as their model. But in one
respect, they have chosen to go further, by removing the requirement
that the NHS provide emergency care to everyone.
Given the Tory attitude towards refugees, I suppose that soon
they won't get treatment even for broken bones, as part of the
"hostile environment".
Biden promised he would reverse the wrecker's attack on the
immigration judge union, but has not made any change.
The UK is considering an "emergency" approval for use of a
neonicotinoid pesticide.
There is a real emergency, but use of neonicotinoids creates its own
future emergency for which we have no remedy.
The UK was going to raise the capital gains tax, but quietly dropped the plan.
The ties that now bind nations together are becoming methods for
fighting each other.
In the 1970s, the short-sighted western countries responded to OPEC's
power with a campaign to boost their own extraction of fossil fuels.
That campaign is still advancing, even though we now know it is
suicidal.
The best way to respond to Putin's threats is to speed up renewable electric
generation.
*Wildfires broke carbon emission records from Siberia to the American west.*
China is offering vaccines instead of loans to win diplomatic
support from African countries.
The new approach is much better for those African countries. I wish
the US were inclined to compete with China at it. If it were not for
the oppressiveness of China, and its plan to conquer and subjugate
Taiwan, I would wish China success in this competition.
Record high temperatures devastated the Christmas tree crop planted in
Oregon this year.
A meticulous approximation says that Ethereum uses around 2 to 3
gigawatts. That is equivalent to 2 to 3 coal-fired power plants, or
1/3 of what Americans use for watching TV.
Republicans attack the basic idea of having the law apply equally to
everyone — and thereby the basic idea of public health rules that people
are requires to obey to keep the public safe.
It is now possible to predict a person's physical appearance fairly reliably from per DNA sequence.
Since our current knowledge of the significance of genes is imperfect,
some people will not actually resemble the prediction. This may cause
the wrong people to be questioned. At least it will be possible to
prove, with their DNA, that they are not the suspect.
Other possible problems are not caused by inaccuracy of prediction.
However, I don't think we should call it "racial profiling" when the
state suspects people in racial group R because it is known that the
culprit was in group R. If a witness says, "He was black" or "He was
white", we would not call it "racial profiling" if that led to
questioning blacks, or to questioning whites.
Real racial profiling is when cops jump to the conclusion that they
should search for a certain group, not based on knowledge, but rather
based on assuming that people in group R are likely to be criminals.
The world can produce enough food for the current human population.
but it might take big social changes as well as changes in diets.
Resistance to those changes will be strong.
The smaller the human population, the smaller the necessary changes
will be.
The UK denied asylum to Ethiopian Seyfu Jamaal, saying he would be
safe in Ethiopia where civil war is spreading.
Congress must not trust the US military to take civilian casualties
seriously and investigate them properly. Congress should do the
investigating.
California has canceled the approval of the pesticide sulfoxaflor,
because of its danger to bees.
It is probably dangerous to other non-pest insects, too.
* Since 1995, members of the global 1% have
captured 38% of all new wealth while the poorest half of humanity has
benefited from just 2%.*
*Global inequality "as marked as it was at peak of western imperialism."*
The British government formally apologized for failing to enforce fire
regulations, with the result that 72 people died in a fire spread by
flammable building materials.
Now will it take responsibility for fixing firetrap apartments that
people bought, who now can't afford to pay to make them safe? The
government agreed to pay for this for tall buildings, but arbitrarily
decided to leave the people in shorter buildings trapped there.
*White House Dismisses Idea of Mailing Out [Gratis] Covid Tests Like
Other Nations.*
It looks like Bogus Johnson ordered an evacuation plane to take rescue
dogs and cats out of Afghanistan and leave some human beings behind.
This shows why I agree only to a limited extent with idea of animal
rights: because strong support tends to lead people to save dogs they
love rather than human beings they don't know.
I doubt that Bogus Johnson really cared about those pets, any more
than he cares about Afghans or Britons in general. But I think that
Farthing must have cared about the pets, and that motivated him to use
some sort of personal connection to get this favor from Johnson.
*The International Tennis Federation says it has not suspended
tournaments in China because it
"does not want to punish a billion people."*
If that excuse were valid, it would be wrong to deny China anything it
wants, because (after China publicizes the denial) most Chinese would
feel you had denied them something, so you would have "punished" them.
A sports tournament is never so important that cancelling it constitutes
an unfair punishment to the would-be spectators.
(satire) *Federal Witness Protection Program Criticized
For Failing To Create Believable Female Identities.*
Rich right-wing fanatics have funded campaigns to elect right-wing fanatics
to school boards. Where they succeed,
they enact policies to facilitate
spread of Covid-19 and try to sabotage education about racism
*ALEC Is
Enabling Anti-LGBTQ Hate.*
With all the
injustices that ALEC promotes
One more injustice may seem to change little. But this may make
ALEC more vulnerable. Many companies have taken strong stands in
favor of gay rights, and they may find it hard to support ALEC given
this.
An anti-coal activist in Australia has been living in her car.
She can't go home, as she has
been ordered not to see her SO for a year.
Now the thugs have seized the car and plan to sell it.
Another variant, similar to Omicron, usually passes unnoticed with the
quick tests usually used.
Scientists have no idea how much it has
already spread.
Outlining a national strategy
to protect people from Covid-19.
Agriculture uses lots of plastic,
generally single-use, and disposed of by burning or burying in the soil.
Tourists in Antarctica bring
invasive species that grow in places where the ice has melted.
Whether this new ecosystem is a bad thing, I'm not sure.
If there are no native species for them to drive out,
maybe no harm is done.
US counties that voted more for
the wrecker have higher death rates
from Covid.
The wrecker's supporters tend not to get vaccinated, and thus are more
likely to die.
A list of possible
sanctions against Russia if it attacks Ukraine.
It is somewhat misguided to list canceling the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
as a possible punishment, since that pipeline must
never be used in any case. It would burst the carbon budget.
Many in Afghanistan that the UK offered asylum to did not make it out, and
are now trapped there.
Under those circumstances of chaos and hurry, almost anyone will make
mistakes. Perhaps we should not blame the UK and the US for slipping up.
However, the UK government seems in recent years to have become
systematically incompetent for all tasks that involve doing things for
specific people. Especially those that involve passports and visas.
I don't know whether this is a matter of hiring corrupt or incompetent people,
or a workplace culture that makes it better to do nothing than to help
anyone who wasn't supposed to be helped, or something else.
Timnit Gebru: *
For truly ethical AI, its research must be independent
from big tech.*
The billionaire "philanthropists" of Big Tech dominate nonprofit
fundraising, too, and they use this to shape society according to
their ideas. Bill Gates set up much-criticized changes in education
in the US, and made almost all leaders and experts in the field
reluctant to criticize them because they hoped for funding from the
Gates Foundation.
Gebru's point makes sense to me, but that alone won't make AI in the
service of companies safe. Letting servers run by others dominate
your computing activities is giving those others tyrannical power over
you. That moral issue is separate from the one that Gebru raises.
If part of what attracts people to use the servers is AI that "works
well", that AI will contribute to dominating people, even if there is
nothing wrong about how that AI itself functions.
Sweden has adopted a multipurpose RFID person identification chip. This is very dangerous,
because it tends to lead people to use one
chip to identify themselves for many activities.
Even if different servers run by different operators control different
activities, their databases are all pre-indexed.
Getting the chip inserted into one's hand makes this more shocking,
but it is just the icing on the poisonous cake.
A black defendant won a new trial
because the jury deliberated in a room
with a Confederate flag and other symbols.
This illustrates part of how systemic racism operates. The racism of
the Confederacy, and the slavery system it fought for, propagates
through the actions of its present-day adorers into racist influence
on other people.
The retrial will not exactly tell us whether that influence was
crucial in the first trial. Partly because the appeal found another
error in his first trial: some evidence will not be admitted next
time. Partly because it will have a different jury and maybe a
different judge. But also because influences like this are not
overwhelming. They do not compel a given outcome independent of what
the facts justify. Rather, they change tendencies. They may or may
not hurt a particular individual on a particular occasion, but overall
they make the system more unfair.
The article linked to above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
With China defending the Burmese military rule,
the US has no effective
way to oppose it.
Sanctions would have little effect because China would not adopt them.
I wonder if there is some sort of communications technology that the US
could provide to the resistance, that might aid its efforts.
(satire) *Centrist NFL Fan
Spends Sunday Rooting For Line Of Scrimmage.*
Victoria's border closure (with another part of Australia) blocked
thousands of residents of Victoria from returning home.
They tried to apply for an exemption, but the automated bureaucracy made impossible demands.
Ralph Nader: crimes by corporations are ever more documented,
but the US
government hardly ever really prosecutes it.
Former prisoners of Australia's offshore immigration prisons,
and former staff, rebuke the UK for planning to do likewise.
*US, UK and EU will help fund South Africa's coal phaseout,
offering a
model for the developing world.*
*Rohingya sue Facebook for £150bn over Myanmar genocide.*
*All coral reefs in western Indian Ocean "at high risk of collapse in next 50
years."*
It doesn't mention the other danger of ocean acidification.
*New York City sets Covid vaccine mandate for all private employers.*
When gambling addiction lures people into unpayable debt, some of them
commit suicide.
There are around 400 such suicides a year in the UK.
I was unable to find any comparable info about the US.
China points to the grave flaws in US democracy to make itself appear
not so bad.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to four years in prison, for various invented crimes.
Basically,
for acting as if Burma were a free country.
Resistance to the coup is going strong, a year later.
The Tories plan to put Humpty Dumpty in charge of laws: they will mean
whatever ministers say they mean.
The UK is planning its own version of a "war on drugs".
I expect this to do increased harm, just as the US "war on drugs" has done.
*US seeks Russian and Chinese support to salvage Iran nuclear deal.*
California's voters are leaning towards repeal of the death penalty.
Students in various US high schools are organzing to protest the
prejudice and hatred shown by others in their school.
Why is smuggling of fentanyl increasing as heroin decreases? It's the
"iron law of prohibition": "As you crack down on the original
substances, you end up with a substitute that is usually more compact,
more potent, easier to smuggle and more problematic, more dangerous."
Biden wants stricter punishment for possessing or selling fentanyl.
The hyperpunitive approach never stops people from using an addictive drug.
Because fentanyl is dangerous, we need policies that reduce the danger.
Decriminalization together with treatment can at least reduce the deaths
from overdoses and contamination, and often helps reduce use.
Honolulu shut down its main source of water because of contamination
with jet fuel.
When the Navy stopped pumping water from that area, because its water
was contaminated, the result was to direct the flow towards
Honolulu's well and contaminate that well's water.
*'Global Empire of the US Christian Right': Dark Money Fuels Attacks on
Abortion Rights Worldwide*
Brazil passed a law to create a compulsory license to patents that
obstruct protection from Covid-19, but Bolsonaro vetoed it; the Senate
can override, but it has failed to do so.
It is not clear to me how this law would enable vaccine manufacturers
in Brazil to get access to the trade secrets of making the vaccines.
One of the supposed reasons for the patent system is to procure the
publication of details in patent applications — but that no longer
has the intended results. Patentholders publish the minimum they can
get away with, while keeping the rest of the details secret.
Every shooting in a school encourages pressure for more complete surveillance
of students, which supposedly would make it possible to identify those
who will be murderers.
This approach doesn't seem to be practical, because even with lots of
personal surveillance data, it's hard to identify the few who will
actually commit violence. The system gives warnings about many and
nearly all are false alarms. The followups harass many and rarely do
any good.
*Nine pro-corrupter lawyers ordered to pay $175,000 for sham election lawsuit.*
One of them faces federal charges of falsifying incorporation papers.
*Poland plans to set up [a centralized digital] register of
pregnancies to report miscarriages.*
When women have miscarriages, the state might suspect them of having
had an abortion. Some US states have prosecuted women based on
discovering that they had miscarriages,
and some Latin American countries as well.
*Winter heatwave breaks records in four US states.*
Hotter winters has harmful effects. It can mean less snow or ice
remains to fill rivers in the spring. It can enable pests to survive
and multiply, which used to live somewhere warmer.
The Pegasus spyware was used to crack the phones of some US officials.
This is in addition to officials of France and some other countries.
I can't imagine what justification a state could offer for such a
boycott. "Those rich little companies are getting less investment —
that is a horrible injustice! We must support them!"? It would be a
blatant act of partisanship, a law with no pretense of a public
interest purpose.
*GOP Reject Vaccine Mandates for Men, But Demand Pregnancy Mandates for Women.*
Shell has got final permission to set off explosions off the East Coast
of South Africa.
Even if Shell knows how to reduce the harm to whales' hearing from the
seismic tests, it makes no sense to permit exploring for oil under the
ocean bottom, or anywhere, because there is no room in the carbon budget
to extract that oil.
(satire) *Bounty Scientists Scream As Experimental Paper Towel Absorbs
Entire Lab.*
Michael Reinoehl, anti-fascist, admitted shooting an armed right-wing
counterprotester and said it was self-defense. The thugs went after
him and killed him; some said he tried to shoot them, but others said
he was running away, unarmed.
Contrast this with how they treated Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed
unarmed antiracist protesters and said it was self-defense.
The article makes claims about what "the Democrats" will do, and that
may apply to plutocratist Democrats. I think some progressive Democrats
are different.
Pfizer's patents and secrets give it power which it uses to bully
governments to agree to one-sided agreements (with unjust arbitration
instead of trials), and keep the whole thing secret from the public.
This shows that patents in the medical field are worse than just
instruments to gouge the non-rich and let the poor die. They are a
system where peoples are ruled by corporations.
This system needs to be destroyed.
Oceanic windfarms act as artificial reefs that provide a much better home
for sea life than a flat bottom. They can reinvigorate fishing.
In addition, they block the kinds of fishing that wipe out everything.
*Principles v money: from tennis to F1, this is the real contest taking over
global sport.*
I never care about sports except on the rare occasions when I come
across an example of real heroism, something more important than
sports. The Women's Tennis Association's defense of Peng Shuai was
such an example. Since I never watch sports, I won't actually see
it, but I will read the news about it.
Plankton that proliferated 2 billion years ago died and became graphite,
which lubricated rocks, which facilitated the growth of mountains.
French people's incomes increased in the late 1700s because they became
less religious and practiced contraception more.
US citizens: call on the EPA to regulate methane emissions.
US citizens: call on Biden to stop oil drilling on federal lands.
We need to stop new oil drilling on private lands too, but the president cannot
do that by himself.
US citizens: call on Congress to fix the Supreme Court and save
abortion rights.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word
US citizens: call on the Senate to carefully examine the nominees for
the USPS Board of Governors, and demand commitments to repair and
improve the USPS.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the EPA to protect frontline communities.
*"Enemy combatant" [Abu Zubaydah] held at Guantánamo petitions for
release because war is over.*
* When environmentalists on a Seychelles atoll decided to race boats made
from ocean litter, they had 500 tonnes to pick from.*
Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, targeted with lawfare by President
Do-dirty, will be allowed to go to Norway to receive her Nobel Prize.
Microgig platforms such as Mechanical Turk are designed to keep the
labor force atomized and poor.
The wrecker's "Remain in Mexico" is now operative again: making asylum
seekers that cross the US-Mexico border stay in Mexico while their
cases are considered. The Mexican border cities are very dangerous.
Whatever we think of the "Remain in Mexico" policy, we can't blame
Biden for obeying a court order. The last thing we need now is for
the president to promote the idea that the president can disregard
court orders at will. That would help future Republican presidents do
the same.
However, there must be a procedure that the wrecker used to put the
"Remain in Mexico" policy into effect. I expect that procedure could
revoke it, too, in a way that the court would accept. So I wonder: is
Biden doing that?
Polar bears in Churchill, Canada, on Hudson Bay, face eventual extinction when there is no longer any sea ice.
Nevada's Supreme Court ruled that a gun company cannot be liable if a person
uses its product for murder.
I think the judge's ruling is the only proper decision. For any
product that can be used as a weapon, society has basically two
choices: permit people to make, sell, buy and own that product, or
forbid it.
If society decides to permit the product, it must not hold the maker
liable for crimes committed using it. To do that would make
production so dangerous that no one would dare produce it; in
practice, production would be indirectly prohibited. This applies not
only to products that are weapons, but also to other products which
are not intended as weapons, but are dangerous — for instance, table
knives.
It is wrong for society to prohibit anything indirectly via
unpredictable third-party liability. (Can you name something else
that is now being prohibited indirectly in parts of the US?) If
society decides to prohibit making, selling, buying and owning a
certain kind of product, it should do so explicitly and directly, not
by letting others sue the makers into bankruptcy.
I support prohibiting AR-15 rifles, and other guns that can be
converted in effect into machine guns with a convenient add-on. Those
guns make more danger; as far I can see, there is nothing good about
them that could outweigh that reason to prohibit them.
Climate defenders have sued the UK government for establishing a plan for billions in subsidies for fossil fuel extraction.
Fossil fuel companies such as Exxon are running big ad campaigns on
podcasts, claiming that they will cure global heating with carbon capture —
which is unlikely ever to work well enough to make a difference.
British parents asked the thug department to help them get their daughters
back from PISSI. All the thugs cared about was interrogating the parents
then they exiled the daughters without talking with them.
The Unite labor union will cut its donation to the new, "centrist"
Labour Party.
I am sad to say I don't think this will change Starmer's politics. He
must have a powerful reason to have chosen the mission to ensure that
no one like Corbyn ever leads the Labour Party again.
The Pentagon said it expects China to be ready to defeat the US and conquer
Taiwan by 2027.
The Pentagon may be saying this as a bluff to get more money. It has
said such things before — compare the 1960 "missile gap". It could
also be a valid prediction; if so, is there a way to avoid the two
alternate disasters?
In a previous period of "refugee crisis", heroic people risked all to help people reach Britain or the US from a country where they were sure to be
oppressed and likely to be killed.
Israeli bombers destroyed Gaza's bookstores and libraries last May.
One has been rebuilt, thanks to foreign donations.
Iran has reportedly blown off negotiations on the non-nuclear deal.
The other parties have not rejected further talks.
The 2019 drought in New South Wales killed many of the native trees,
in some places around 2/3 of them.
This is in places which weren't burnt by the wildfires.
Workers are on strike at 58 British universities, due to the low wages
and absence of job security of decades of making universities act like
businesses.
Justice Sotomayor warned that the right-wing justices are treating the
Supreme Court as a political instrument, and that this will destroy
respect for the court.
Republicans don't care about maintaining respect, because they aim to
impose nondemocratic minority rule. As long as their supporters
control all political power, they don't care what the rest of us
think. Their motto is, "Let them despise us, as long as they obey
us."
Arguing that Cop26 produced a weak declaration because of the unfairness
of singling out coal over oil and gas.
There is some truth in that, but I think it is a matter of details.
There are many powerful specific interests in one kind of fossil fuel
or another. Whatever set of priorities among fossil fuel activities
an international campaign might choose — including the set, "all
fossil fuels are equally bad" — will arouse strong opposition
somewhere. That opposition will create arguments about "fairness",
all aimed at "reduce that other fossil fuel in that other region first".
There will be no fairness in the climate disaster we are heading for.
Wealthy countries such as the US will be able to keep things going for
longer than India.
Biden has proposed to have health insurance companies pay for Covid-19
tests, with a limited number of tests available gratis through
community clinics.
By international standards, this is an inadequate plan.
Senator Markey calls for laws to make the Federal Reserve start
pressuring banks to stop lending to fossil fuel investments.
We also need to give the Fed a chair who will lead this:
not the Republican appointee Powell.
*Poor countries mustn’t open up [their] economies [to international
competition] until they are strong.*
Missouri's Republican governor asked on Nov 1 for a report on how
effective mask mandates have been at preventing Covid-19. The results
showed that Missouri cities with mask mandates reduced 25% fewer cases
than other areas. So he buried the report.
A few Republican senators threatened to shut down the US government if
they didn't get their demand: undermining enforcement of federal
vaccine mandates.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter at (202) 224-3121 and
ask per to ask the House leaders to bring the MORE Act (H.R. 3617)
to a vote.
This bill would end federal prohibition of marijuana.
Everyone: reproach Disney for its DRM on December 10, the Day Against DRM.
Also, please spread the word.
*Ecuador's Highest Court Enforces Constitutional "Rights of Nature" to
Safeguard Los Cedros Protected Forest.*
This demonstrates that countries can establish and defend broad
protections for natural ecosystems, including broad prohibitions of
actions that tend to damage them, without endorsing an appearance of
animism by saying that forests, rivers, etc. are "persons".
The push for animism can be seen in that article, however, where it
claims tat monkeys, bears, frogs and birds won this legal battle.
I am proud to say that human beings like you and me won this case.
Monkeys, bears, frogs and birds can be harmed by mining, but are not
capable of understanding what mining is, nor trying to regulate it.
Only humans can do that.
A large statistical study found that some pollutants affect the
sex ratio of human babies.
It is inconceivable that that people who will have male babies would
tend to move to places with certain pollutants, while those who will
have female babies would tend to move to places with other pollutants.
The pollutants must be causing the change in sex ratio, somehow. Most
likely each of these pollutants is more likely to cause an abortion of
one sex than the other.
We don't have any evidence about how far into the pregnancy these
abortions tend to occur. If it is more than six weeks, some southern
US states may someday try women for "feticide" if they live in
places where such pollution is present.
The coup in Sudan is not over: the military brought back
the civilian prime minister, but only as a front man.
Military personnel at Pearl Harbor believe that jet fuel has leaked
from tanks into their water supply, because the water looks, tastes
and smells of oil.
They suspect that it is related to various symptoms that many have
developed.
The Navy has been warned about the danger from these tanks but didn't
pay attention until now.
The US rejected the idea of a treaty to ban autonomous robots with
lethal arms.
I can imagine US officials thinking about the current US advantage in
AI and concluding that unrestricted deployment of autonomous weapons
would give the US an advantage in this decade, so (they might conclude)
it is better to reject the treaty.
On the other hand, if 15 years from now China is in the lead in AI,
having this treaty in place already would benefit the US against China.
Those short-term considerations are the wrong way to look at this
question, because it is bigger than the narrow questions of short-term
advantage. In the long term, this treaty will prevent a danger to all
humans.
The British military has eliminated command influence in the response to
accusations of rape.
This means that your commander won't be able to protect the accused.
Command influence is the poison in the military justice system, and
people have campaigned for decades to eliminate it from the US
military.
Several states governed by the Covid Party now offer unemployment support
to workers that are fired for refusal to get vaccinated.
In effect, this amounts to paying people to undermine public health.
The Republican Party program is to keep Covid-19 circulating in the US
as much as possible. This causes instability and harms the economy,
both of which make Americans unhappy, and they perversely blame Biden
rather the the Republicans who are doing it.
Some Americans foolishly accused China of releasing Covid-19
in order to hurt the US. That accusation is implausible and there
is no evidence for it. But that's basically what the Republican
Party is doing now.
One Democrat in Congress accused them without mincing words.
The causes of Democrats' political weakness don't include fringe wokeness.
(satire) *Starbucks Dangles Tied-Up Union Organizers Over Vat Of Steamed Milk.*
What a lawyer learned by volunteering to help poor people in eviction
court.
Luke Holland interviewed old, surviving Nazis about their crimes under
Hitler. Some of the interviews are now a film.
I wonder what will happen when modern Nazis see this film. Will the horror
of Nazism break through their curtain of lies, or will they lie to themselves
about what they see?
(satire) *Rob Manfred Confirms Pete Rose Remains Ineligible From
DraftKings Official MLB Hall Of Fame At Cooperstown.*
China ran an organized disinformation campaign to cover up the
imprisonment and brainwashing of a million Uyghurs. Twitter just closed it.
Air pollution kills over 170,000 people per year in Europe.
I'd guess it's a comparable amount in the US. It's population is around 3/4
of the EU's, but I think it treats poor people worse.
Part of Australia regularly jails minors under inhumane conditions,
giving them only an hour per day outside the cell.
Even children are jailed.
The atmospheric river that flooded British Columbia killed over half a million
farm animals, as well as destroying buildings, roads and bridges.
All kinds of infrastructure were inadequate for such a flood, but
improving them will be a never-ending game of catch-up unless we stop
making the climate worse.
A mob of religious fanatics in Pakistan lynched a foreign factory
manager who was accused of "blasphemy".
*The Republican party is abandoning democracy and embracing political
violence.*
There are so many Indian students in US universities that caste
prejudice has come with them. Some US universities are taking measures
to resist it.
We don't know how long the phenomenon of Dalits has existed in India.
Some say that in the period 600-1000, when Hindus took control in India
and crushed Buddhism, they oppressed the Buddhists and that oppression
made them Dalits.
How prosecutors convinced
Alice Sebold that Anthony Broadwater was the man who raped her.
I've read that Sebold's memoir, Lucky, has been from withdrawn from sale.
The article did not say whose decision that was.
It would be wrong to continue selling it as it was written. However,
an idea occurs to me. Sebold could invite Anthony Broadwater to add
an epilogue to it, and publish that version with the income going to
Broadwater and/or pertinent organizations for justice.
If a place has "historical and cultural significance" to some group,
does that imply there must not be a lithium mine there?
I am not convinced.
Lithium is important for defending the climate. We must not block
lithium mining based on sentimentality alone.
There are things whose physical presence can justify blocking any sort
of mine. If a site holds historical or scientific information, or
important art that can't be moved, those call for protection.
However, it may be sufficient to keep the mine away from those
important things rather than outside the entire area.
Other scarce resources, such as water, and endangered species and
ecosystems, are also important to protect. Mines tend to leak
pollution, and mining companies often try to weasel out of their
responsibility for the pollution they cause. There should be no mine
unless reliable clean practices are enforced by a disciplinarian that
the mine cannot fire or disobey. Those precautions would make the
lithium more expensive, but the lithium may be worth that cost.
However, we need not forego lithium because of anyone's sentimentality.
In this regard, I do not discriminate between indigenous people and
anyone else.
I'd be in favor of moving part of Arlington National Cemetery to make
way for a lithium mine, if necessary. The cemetery's importance to
people is not due to its location, but to their sentiments about the
veterans buried there. We can respect those sentiments by moving the
graves to a different location to enable mining the lithium.
*Fair Elections and
U.S. Constitution Come Under Attack at ALEC Meeting.*
In Papua New Guinea, as in the US,
Christian faith spreads Covid-19.
When people catch Covid-19 shortly after vaccination — before the
vaccine has time to become effective — the faithful make an illogical
leap and claim the vaccine killed them. They want to believe the
vaccine is harmful, so they find excuses to be fooled by. Often it is
fatal.
Don't let this happen to you — get vaccinated!
*Biden Invites Venezuelan Coup Leader
Juan Guaidó to US "Summit for
Democracy".*
President Maduro doesn't always respect democracy,
but he does so more than Guaidó.
And much more than US Republicans.
The bullshitter held an event at the White House with relatives of deceased
US soldiers, then accused them of
infecting him with Covid-19. He had had a positive test the day before.
In other words, he risked infecting them, then knowingly made a false
accusation. That gives a good overall picture of what he is.
(satire) *NASA Delays Space Walk After It Starts
Snowing In Outer Space.*
The FERPA law was passed to stop schools from handing out students' personal data to companies.
The US government changed and reinterpreted the law so as as to facilitate and even require such snooping.
Amazingly, someone has accused the
Yes Men of inventing disinformation
A new process can reportedly reduce methane emissions from
cow dung while improving its nitrogen content as fertilizer.
It remains to be seen how well this actually works in practice when scaled up
to higher quantities.
This method won't eliminate all the methane emissions from cows.
They also emit methane through farting.
Twitter's new policy of deleting images posted without the consent of
the people shown in the image seem well-meant,
but could prohibit posting any street photography.
I've proposed the criterion that occasionally snapping people on the street
should be legal,
but systematically collecting photos of everyone should be illegal.
*Last-minute attempt to stop Shell’s
[seismic] exploration of whale breeding grounds [off South Africa].*
Seismic exploration can injure whales' (including dolphins') hearing, which may kill them.
Large PR companies have worked for decades inculcating a
conceptual framework to guide people to reject climate defense action
while trying to remain unidentified.
The culpable companies include Cerrell, Edelman, Glover Park, and Ogilvy.
56% of workers in the gas and oil industry, world wide,
would rather work in renewable energy.
Those companies fired many workers last year, and some refuse to come
back. But there will be room for all of them in renewable energy
if we invest funds to make it grow.
Democrats in Congress called on the Attorney General to end
Chevron's use of a US court to persecute Steven Donziger.
Senator Durbin has proposed to legislate to give each prisoner in
Guantanamo a real, civilian trial, or release him.
I support this, but there are a few details that need attention.
First, what about prisoners that were tortured into confessions?
I think those confessions will be inadmissible in real US trials,
which could mean that they can't be convicted of anything.
Charges against them ought to be dropped, but will the proposed
amendment do this?
Second, what will the US do about prisoners that face no charges but
have no country they can safely go to? That is not a justification to
keep them in prison.
I think it is ok to let them live in the US if they wish. A handful
of non-citizens in the US, even if they wish revenge, will not make
any significant difference to the security of Americans. They will be
insignificant compared with all the unidentified people who do or will
feel that way.
Third, what about those who find a home abroad and wish revenge?
There are so many people that wish for revenge against US
military violence that these would make no significant difference.
The cause of US price inflation is that corporations
which were making big profits saw an opportunity to make even more profits.
(satire) *Nation’s Embattled CEOs
Announce We Just Gotta Do Better,
Simple As That.*
*Labor group says
Amazon massively under reported Covid cases contracted at work.*
Acton Business Fairs give children (and younger teenagers)
an easy chance to start a real business on a small scale.
Sometimes they make substantial money. I expect that most do not
succeed to that point, but they can learn a lot even so.
Mega-activities that put some sort of waste into
the ocean will eventually cause mega-damage.
It is feasible to put an end to
transmission of HIV, with money and attention.
Spotify flaunts how it tracks what each user listens to, and invites users
to boast about Spotify's knowledge of them.
This devious scheme is all the more vicious because it operates at an
emotional level which most the manipulated victims can't even recognize
as manipulation.
Out, out damned Spotify! If you can't stop yourself from using it yet,
at least stop yourself from promoting it.
If you have the strength to reject streaming, you can proudly say this
How about this slogan:
If someone chides you by saying that sharing is illegal,
you can respond with, "The music companies bought the law,
but they can't make sharing wrong."
What sharing slogans can you think of?
George Monbiot: *Jailed for 51 weeks for protesting? Britain is
becoming a police state by stealth.*
The article spells out the details. Being near the expected site of a
protest would be grounds for searching people to check for suspicious
equipment, such as signs or handouts. Almost any sort of support for
a protest would be grounds for imprisonment.
It reminds me of what I've read about Hong Kong.
Salafi Arabia bribed and threatened other countries to get them to vote
to terminate the UN investigation of its war crimes in Yemen.
Xiomara Castro has won the election in Honduras.
Calling for removal of computers from elementary school, on the
grounds that their use (beyond occasionally) is bad for education.
I am not an expert on pedagogy, but I know that those computers are running
nonfree (unjust) software, and much of it has malicious functionalities —
snooping on the children, and addicting them to systems that
manipulate them. So I concur with the recommendation.
Doctors warn that Medicare's new "direct contracting" amounts to a plan to
privatize and ruin it.
The wrecker started the plan, but Biden has not stopped it.
Michael Mann's book, The New Climate War, describes how planet
roasters have abandoned denial of the climate crisis and turned to
distraction, and blaming millions of individuals for succumbing to the
social pressures that the roasters have set up.
He disagrees partly with Thunberg, saying that we should not despise
the compromise policies recently adopted by governments. They are
inadequate, but they are motion in the right direction.
When a powerful organization leads and pressures weaker and
disorganized people to do something harmful, both the organization and
the individuals are morally culpable — but if we want to make an
effective change, we must above all attack the organization.
(satire) *Dr. Scholl’s Introduces New Amputation Kit For Dry, Cracked Feet.*
*The Federal Trade Commission Has the Power to Break Up Big Tech.*
Dozens of former Afghan government soldiers and officials have been
killed or disappeared since the Taliban took over.
The Taliban's leaders say this is not the Taliban's policy, and
perhaps that is true, but it seems that they are not in control of what
the Taliban actually do.
Republicans are trying all possible avenues in parallel to prevent
future free and fair elections in the US, and their threat is real.
What I don't know is, how can we stop them from succeeding?
New Zealand will legalize the practice of testing the illegal drugs
that people plan to take, to assure them that the drugs have the
expected contents and dose.
New York City will open supervised injection sites,
but no testing as yet.
*What should we make of the US assurances regarding how Assange would
be treated if extradited?* They are worthless, because they rule out
only a few special kinds of torture. Torture and brainwashing are
standard practice in US prisons.
An appeals court upheld California's law that prohibits large magazines.
I worry that the Supreme Court will reject it.
Fungi in the soil that connect plants sequester lots of carbon in soil,
but modern agriculture and global heating are destroying them.
When the FBI tries to recruit a non-US-citizen as an informant, it
first offers positive inducements; but if those don't persuade per,
they may start harassment of per, even per friends too. They put Aswad
Khan on the no-fly list, then put his friends on it too; this terrorized
everyone who knew him, so they broke off contact and left him isolated.
This behavior is what I would have expected from the KGB. It hurts
that my country is guilty of it. The secrecy and arbitrariness of the
no-fly list must be eliminated.
I foresee that Khan will be compelled to turn, for friendship and
business, to Pakistanis that are hostile to the US. The FBI has left him
no other way to go. His friends must feel resentment to the US also.
Putin is making bellicose demands, threatening to start a war
if the west does not obey.
Specifically, he threatened to attack if western countries send troops
to Ukraine, or even sell Ukraine antiaircraft missiles that could help
resist the threatened Russian attack. This while Russian troops and
proxies remain in Ukraine.
Rather than be intimidated, the west should do exactly what was right
to do last week: give Ukraine weapons to help it mount a better
defense but don't threaten Russia, point out that this is no threat,
and expect Putin to do the sensible thing.
Meanwhile, European allies must recognize that approving the Nord
Stream 2 gas pipeline would be surrendering to Putin and to global
heating at the same time.
The US doesn't try its best to investigate civilian casualties from
its air raids, nor to avoid them.
Omicron was infecting people in Europe before it was reported from
South Africa.
Does this mean that blocking travel from southern Africa is useless?
It can't possibly keep Omicron out of Europe or the US, but it may
delay the growth of Omicron cases for some period of time. Since we
may be a race against the time to develop a new vaccine, that delay
is important.
However, once the number of daily new cases in some non-African
country far exceeds the rate at which travelers from Africa might
bring more cases, continuing the ban on travel from Africa to that
country will do negligible good, so it will be time to end the ban.
Rain will be more common than snow in the Arctic, a few decades from now.
This will rapidly destroy the permafrost, and perhaps release
enormous quantities of methane stored in it. That could cause a chain
reaction of global heating.
*Pfizer Is Lobbying to Thwart Whistleblowers From Exposing Corporate Fraud.*
Business-dominated globalization of trade was supposed to give poor countries
massive trickle-down, but it didn't.
Maybe they should reject the WTO.
Criticizing "presenteeism", the demand that workers be present when
scheduled even if that is making them too ill to do actual work.
Why Extinction Rebellion protested by blocking Amazon distribution centers.
It cites reasons that are only indirectly related to global heating.
I agree with those reasons, and they are among the reasons I urge
people to boycott Amazon. But I tend to think that Extinction
Rebellion should keep a sharp focus on climate defense, and avoid
blurring the focus by bringing in tangential issues of any kind.
Union workers are energizde to fight "two-tier" contracts, which say
that new workers will be treated worse than the old workers.
This practice not only locks in future cuts in pay and working conditions,
it also breaks the solidarity of the union. I doubt that employers will shed
even two tears about that.
US citizens: call on Congress to support diplomacy with Iran.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word.
US citizens: call on Congress to legislate to offer college at no charge.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word.
US citizens: call on your Senators to act now to confirm Jessica Rosenworcel and Gigi Sohn to the FCC.
Also to act to reinstate net neutrality, even the limited form that existed in the US before the wrecker got rid of it.
US citizens: call on the Senate to remove Senator Joe Manchin as
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word.
The defense lawyers in the Guantanamo kangaroo court accuse the prosecutors of bending over backwards to conceal information about how the accused were
tortured. They say it conceals more from them than it concealed from
journalists making FOIA requests.
This information is pertinent to the legal question of whether the
court should consider confessions that they gave a few months after
the end of their four years of torture. The fact that this question
needs to be asked demonstrates the injustice of these courts.
A scientific summary of the possible effects of the Omicron variant,
depending on three parameters that scientists are working on measuring.
New Zealand is considering adopting a law to give an artist a share
of the sales price when per work is resold.
This raises a number of moral issues.
New Zealand's proposed law it applies only to works that sell for more
than a thousand dollars. I would not begrudge 50 out of that for the
artist. As a practical matter, I'd be content with this law.
However, it is being presented as "intellectual property" and used
to boost the public's respect for that confused over generalization.
The bullshitter challenges Democrats to debate with him.
There can't be a real debate with the bullshitter unless there is a
referee that can penalize him. Otherwise, with each utterance, the
bullshitter will make up a new lie, and at the end, he will say, "I
won!"
Botswana's appeals court has ruled that laws prohibiting homosexual acts
are unconstitutional.
Barbados has proudly broken its last connection with the British monarchy.
Barbados first removed a statue of Admiral Nelson, for allegedly supporting
slavery.
According to Wikipedia, there is a debate about he whether did so.
A slaveholder published a letter from Nelson, after Nelson's death,
which contained an extremely harsh defense of slavery. Some argue
that this was inconsistent with the rest of his actions and claim
that the words were not written by Nelson.
A mob of religious fanatics attacked a police station in Pakistan
with the aim of kidnapping and lynching someone accused of blasphemy.
With all the surveillance technology in place in the US, and all the
laws passed for the war that's on drugs, finding and prosecuting
everyone that assists friends or strangers in getting an abortion
could be as easy as pie.
Some students at Arizona State University demand that the university
expel Kyle Rittenhouse from a class, and ban him from campus, to cater
to their feelings.
The university must not grant any group of students the authority to
order the expulsion or banning of other students. To do so would grant
the first group arbitrary power.
Secret Chinese government papers show that the repression of Uyghurs was
ordered by President Xi himself.
The UK plans a policy to publish summaries of the "algorithms" used for
making government decisions.
The article seems to equate "algorithm" to applications of machine
learning. Properly speaking, those are not specific algorithms.
Will the policy apply to algorithms in the proper sense, which don't
involve any machine learning, and can be precisely described by their
source code?
Either way, this is a small step forward. The state really ought to
use free software for all its computing, for the sake of national
security and accountability, and release the source code when there is no specific reason not to.
For software that makes decisions about people, it should always
release the source code — which, when machine learning is used, also
includes the trained neural net.
Nonetheless, it is an advance.
A court in Spain is investigating a company that snooped on Julian
Assange while he was in the Equadorian embassy, and has asked the US
for pertinent information about the company, but the US has made
excuses for not answering.
The defense tried to raise the issue of this surveillance in Assange's
extradition hearing, but hampered in various ways. The inability to
determine what the US had to do with the snooping may have harmed his
case.
The outcome of this investigation is directly relevant to whether
Assange will be extradited, so it is understandable that the US
tries to thwart the investigation. Understandable, but dishonest.
Calling on big global retail companies to commit to cutting the greenhouse
emissions of their shipping.
I think countries should tax the arrival of a ship based on the amount of
emissions it made in the voyage, increasing the tax rate each year.
The WHO calls for a treaty to oblige countries to share information
pertinent to future pandemics.
The information to be shared would include observed observations
and technology (including how to make medicines).
Why the stamp-out-every-outbreak approach is still advantageous for China.
When mainstream media warn that a country "risks being left behind",
that generally is pressure to yield to the plutocrats' orders.
Michael Cohen says that prosecutors know about the wrecker's crimes
and could "indict [him] tomorrow."
US citizens: call on Congress and the DOJ to swiftly charge, arrest
and prosecute the wrecker's allies that refuse to testify.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
US citizens: call on your senators to vote against confirming Powell
as head of the Federal Reserve.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
Everyone: call on Call on AIG to stop insuring and investing in
fossil fuels.
In Honduras, the corrupt president Hernández cannot run again. His
chosen successor is running against Xiomara Castro, the wife of former
President Zelaya
who was ousted by the US-approved coup.
People infected with the Omicron variant are showing up in various countries.
The cases we hear about were detected on entry and have been
quarantined, which means they don't imply that Omicron is being
transmitted in those countries.
It may in fact be spreading in them, but we don't have evidence about
it.
Here's an article whose premise is that the most important thing about
the world's response to the Omicron variant is how it treats the people
living in southern Africa where that variant emerged.
Of course, they should not be punished for Omicron. They did not do
anything to cause or help its appearance there; in particular, it
isn't their fault that they were not vaccinated. Unlike right-wing
anti-vaxxers in the US, the Africans did not choose by preference to
spread disease. It was the vaccine companies that caused Africans to
remain unvaccinated, by chosing to limit the vaccine supply.
But neither is there any reason to applaud the people of southern
Africa. They didn't do anything heroic. Not that that's a criticism
of them. As far as I know, there was nothing that they should or
could have done about Omicron.
So, how should we judge some countries' quick suspension of travel out
of southern Africa? It was the right thing to do. It was absolutely
necessary for protecting the rest of the world from the danger which
Omicron may represent.
Not knowing yet whether Omicron is dangerous enough to require cutting
off travel, nor whether Omicron was already spreading in their own
countries, leaders were compelled to try this protective measure in
case it could succeeded -- because delay would surely lose the
opportunity.
Whatever disappointment or expense it may be for people in southern
Africa to be blocked from travelling -- including citizens and
visitors both -- that is a small thing compared with the danger that
this measure may succeed in avoiding.
If it turns out that Omicron is not particularly harmful, these travel
measures will not last long. If it spreads globally anyway, obstacles
to international travel will be the least of the world's worries.
The important lesson to learn is that we must accelerate vaccination.
When we know what vaccine will stop Omicron, we must vaccinate everyone
before a worse variant has a chance to evolve.
The US Department of the Interior recommended addressing the future of
extracting oil and gas by charging companies a little more for it.
That would enable the US to get a bigger share of the profits from
destroying the world's future.
The people who wrote that report disregarded the matter at stake. I
would speculate that their loyalty is to the fossil fuel industry.
We have to question Biden and Haaland's judgment, and loyalties, for
leaving the report in the hands of those people -- and for continuing
to authorize more drilling.
One university has started the Uyghur genocide divestment movement.
*Police Aerial Surveillance Threatens Freedom to Protest.*
The Republican Party as a whole now supports threats of violence against
officials that don't bow down.
*"A core threat to our democracy": threat of political violence growing across
US.*
The German Green Party will get the ministry of Economy and Energy.
This should put the party in a good position to influence decarbonization.
*Alabama Miners Are Still on Strike After 8 Months.*
Exploiting workers is always bad, but if a coal mine treats its
workers well, it is nonetheless a danger to the ecosphere. What we
need is not the establishment of good working conditions in that coal
mine, it is to shut the mine and replace it with other employment with
good conditions.
Louisiana thugs appear to falsify records on the racial identities of
drivers they stop, so as to disguise their bias in deciding who to stop.
The UK has reevaluated the tax implications of certain complex banking
schemes that some people have used for many years, and sent them
unexpected tax bills, some as much as hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Many cannot possibly pay. Some responded by suicide.
The UK has required masks in stores and public transport, as a precaution
against the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, which has already
been found in the UK.
This will slow the spread of Omicron, but since people are still
allowed to eat together inside restaurants, the variant will surely
spread anyway. Basically, this is not enough.
Omicron has also been found in other European countries.
(satire) *Amazon To Let Warehouse Employees' Families Work
Thanksgiving Shifts Too.*
(satire) *Al Roker Reminds Macy's Parade Viewers All The Balloons They
See Today Are Up For Adoption.*
Polls show that Biden's popularity has decreased, but the progressive
parts of his agenda remain popular.
The obvious way to stop most migrants from travelling to Britain
on small boats is to set up a workable system to let them apply
for asylum from elsewhere.
Given that 2/3 of them who reach Britain on boats do receive asylum,
the goal of keeping them away is misguided.
* [Indian] farmers will continue protesting until the government meets
several other demands, including raising the minimum price of their
produce, withdrawing legal action against some farmers, and paying
compensation to the families of hundreds of farmers who have died
as a result of the civil action.*
Bravo! People who are not rich can't trust Modi to keep a promise.
What Modi tried to do is Modi make individuals negotiate deals with
giant companies that face only small amounts of competition. That
puts the companies at a big advantage and leads the individuals to
ruin.
May countries have restricted entry from southern Africa where the
Omicron variant is believed to be spreading.
The other African countries need to restrict travel, too.
That is, if it isn't too late already.
A credit card called "Aspiration" markets itself as a way to protect the
climate, but its claims are full of cloud.
Affirmative action for university admissions could be thought of as
partially counteracting the system that preferentially admits certain
privileged students -- mostly white.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
The world might have avoided the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant,
that seems to be more infectious than Delta, by removing the
artificial obstacles to faster manufacture of vaccines.
There are threats of legal action against several countries which are
blocking this: Canada, the U.K., Norway, and Germany.
The term "intellectual property" is a bogus concept which conflates
several disparate kinds of imposed monopoly, of which patent law is
just one. These laws are so different from each other that a
statement which generalizes about all of them, as that term leads
people to do, always spreads confusion.
Please join me in absolutely refusing to use the term.
California plans to ban new oil wells within 3200 feet of homes,
schools and hospitals, to protect people from toxic chemicals that
escape into the air.
It would be more thorough to close the existing wells in those areas too.
But it might be politically and legally more difficult.
Oil companies plan to use Carbon Capture and Storage to get separate
CO2 and pump that into oil wells to force out more oil. That cycle
presumes that they keep pumping out lots of oil -- it doesn't end
overemission, just reduces it a fraction.
(satire) *Worst Ways Amazon Exploits Workers During Black Friday.*
(satire) *Conservationist Breaks Down Sobbing While Going Through Old
Box Of Extinct Species' Things.*
The US is slow to aid owners of rental housing to rebuild after a
disaster, so private lenders use this as an opportunity for
profiteering.
The National Lawyers Guild in the US sent observers to monitor the
election in Venezuela. They, as well as European observers, found
that the system was basically legitimate.
The Europeans criticized the disqualification of some candidates
before the election.
The conviction of Ahmaud Arbery's murderers shows that the US justice
system can in fact work properly.
What is needed is to make that outcome reliable.
The defense lawyers did everything possible to appeal to the jury's
presumed bigotry, but the jury rejected the idea.
The organizers of the 2017 Charlottesville rally, which was embued by
them with the spirit of right-wing violence and inspired one supporter
to commit murder, have been found liable for 26 million dollars.
Squatters in Glasgow took over an old, vacant homeless shelter and put it into
use as a homeless shelter. (The city does not have enough of them.) Now they
are fighting eviction.
The US government's Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is expected to
forgive the college loans of half a million Americans.
That is a significant step, but what needs to be done is much more.
I estimate that there are tens of millions of Americans who have
college debt that they can't hope to pay.
(satire) *Janet Yellen Announces Americans Can Use Promo Code "THANKS"
For 10% Off All U.S. Goods And Services.*
*Biden Urged to Fight Big Pharma's Vaccine Greed at Key
WTO Meeting.*
*The jailing of a young climate protester is a prime example of Australia's authoritarian drift.*
* There is an ongoing effort to restrict what is considered “legitimate”
protest to that which is least effective.*
Ahmaud Arbery fell victim to the systematic propensity to persecute
black men, with methods that extend as far as murder. The conviction
of his killers had to cross hurdles of systemic racism.
The US has a shortage of nitrogen fertilizer, partly caused by global
heating effects.
As long as people interact, society as a system continues to exist;
but the social fabric can become more or less protective, and more or
less constraining. Various movements have made claims about the
causes of society's problems.
It seems to me that the success of Nordic democratic socialism, with
societies that still cohere, demonstrates that neither liberal
democracy nor socialism is inimical to the social fabric. My
hypothesis is that what tears apart the social fabric is oppressive
power, but the entity that exercises the power varies from situation
to situation.
A new UK law to increase the punishment for anyone that commits violence
against emergency service workers which unpredictably proves fatal,
is unlikely to have any deterrent effect.
The writer suggests it is only an occasion for value signaling.
California has legalized building houses closer together, but various
exclusive areas are taking action to negate its effect.
This law is a good step, but it won't do enough to correct
California's housing shortage. That requires building apartment
buildings — lots of them.
Attorney General Merrick Garland says he will rapidly prosecute passengers
that interfere with flights.
Most of these incidents start when someone refuses to wear a mask.
I wonder if Rep. Gosar or Rep. Green ever refuses to wear a mask on a
plane. Probably they don't dare refuse, because they would really go
to jail if they did. Photos of them wearing masks, like decent people,
might show that they are not as heroic as they pretend to be.
People who are vaccinated against Covid-19 erroneously believe
that they are completely safe, and that they can't ever transmit the virus.
Both beliefs are incorrect.
Vaccinated people are less likely to catch Covid-19 when exposed, and
less likely to transmit the virus if they are infected, but the
probability is not zero. You still need to wear a mask to reduce
those probabilities. You still need to keep distance from others.
These precautions can potentially drive R below 1 and make Covid-19
dwindle, if we keep doing all of them.
The US must bet on deterring Russian threats against Ukraine, or
decide to back down to them.
I think Putin is bluffing and will not attack if the US takes purely
defensive actions. He is an opportunist and grabs whatever is easy to
grab. Furthermore, all his threats are only hints; if he does not
attack, he will not have lost face. Thus, I think the US should take
the defensive actions, then negotiate.
A commitment not to invite Ukraine into NATO would not deny Ukraine
sovereignty, so I think it is ok to include in a peace deal, provided
this is matched with Russian concessions. The US could demand Russia
respect Ukraine's sovereignty by withdrawing support from the Donbas
separatists.
However, demanding return of the Crimea would be too much.
It is too late to undo that act of aggression.
*Justice prevailed in the trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers. In
America, that’s a shock.*
I will not excoriate the defense attorneys for "playing the race
card", since it is their responsibility to try to obtain an acquittal.
What is significant is that they believed that appealing to racism was
the way to win. We all know that it sometimes does win, and that
reflects the fact that racism continues to be powerful and harmful in
the US.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
The vaccine mandate for federal workers has been very effective.
It is weakened a little by the policy of granting religious
exemptions. A religious belief is no grounds to give permission to
risk spreading disease. However, it appears that the magniture of this
weakness is fairly small, in the case of federal workers, so perhaps it
is not an important problem.
*US libraries report spike in organized attempts to ban books in schools.*
On the issue of whether MPs that are taking care of their babies
should be allowed to bring them into Parliament.
I'm in favor of allowing MPs to bring infants into Parliament if this
is necessary in order to take care of them, provided the infants are
not disruptive. That way, Ms Creasy's baby would be allowed, but
Bogus Johnson would be kept out. ;-}.
Good news: India's population has roughly stabilized, and the
traditional prejudice against daughters has decreased somewhat.
However, let's fight the anti-abortion propaganda that talks about
"killing" people "before being born"! "Foeticide" is a word that
right-wing fanatics use when they imprison women for having an
abortion,
or for having a miscarriage which they allege to have been an abortion.
The general practitioners of the NHS voted to reduce their working activities
as a protest (since an actual strike would be unethical and perhaps illegal too).
The UK government's practice of outsourcing government work and
services to private companies allows the work to escape the scope of
the freedom of information act.
* A joint report by human rights bodies and environment groups has found
activists are increasingly facing repression by Australian governments.*
The UK has canceled flights from southern Africa until it has set up
hotel quarantine for passengers coming from there.
But it is too late — the new Covid-19 variant is already in Belgium
and seems to be spreading there.
The Teamsters union elected new officers who know how to make it strong and effective.
Warning that the Ethiopian government may be planning to massacre the people
of Tigrayan ethnic origin in places under its control.
At the same time, Tigrayan forces are 120 miles from the Addis
Abeba.
It sounds like the Ethiopian government is on the verge of military
defeat, while the president asks everyone to rush to "the front" and
form a militia. Do they have military training? Fighting experience?
It sounds like bullshit broadcast for foreign consumption, except I
can't see how it is going to be effective for that purpose.
* The prime minister has always been unfit to lead, but now the media —
and even his own party — are pointing it out.*
Poor neighborhoods in Britain have up to 10 years less life expectancy
than rich neighborhoods.
This seems to be due to the funding cuts for the NHS starting in 2010.
A foundation in the Netherlands accepts donated saplings removed from
paths, and gives them to landowners that want to plant a tree.
*Rich countries could have prevented new Covid variant, say experts.*
They could have done this by liberating vaccine production so as to
vaccinate the whole world quickly.
While I agree with the article's stance, I have to criticize it for
falling for the propaganda trap of "intellectual property". It is a
mistake to say that "intellectual property is bad," or to say that
"intellectual property is good," because the term is an incoherent
over generalization about laws that have very little in common.
The vaccine production issue is partly about patents. Waiving patent
rights would totally eliminate that problem. The vaccine production
issue also concerns trade secrets — but in a totally different way.
What's needed is to order companies to divulge their secrets.
The WTO can't do that, but maybe national governments can do it.
*Myanmar junta accused of forcing people to brink of starvation.*
* Climate activists have blockaded Amazon distribution centres across
the UK to highlight the company’s treatment of its workforce and what
they say are its "environmentally destructive and wasteful business
practices."*
Spain's socialist government plans to repeal the law that prohibited
publishing photos of thugs caught in criminal acts.
More info about this law.
70% of Democrats, 70% of Republicans and 70% of independents want the
US government to do more to prosecute crime by corporations.
(Yes, it's 70% in each group.)
(satire) *Serta Recalls
200,000 Mercy Killing Pillows.*
Door-to-door outreach for progressive
Democrats in rural North Carolina, where Republicans often run unopposed.
The CEO of JP Morgan bank retracted a joke he made that was gently at
the
expense of the Chinese Communist Party.
Is it good for the US that its biggest banks quiver at the thought of
offending China?
High school students did a class project about V for Vendetta.
The thugs that patrol the school tore down the project's posters.
It appears they believe their job includes censorship as well as
launching students into the
school-to-prison pipeline.
I hope the students convert their protest into a campaign to make
the school safer help by sending those thugs out of the school.
Amazingly, Republicans are attacking Democrats for the tax cut they
are proposing to
give to rich people
Republicans officials care nothing for consistency -- they passed
bigger tax cuts for the rich, but that does not inhibit them from
criticizing one when Democrats are responsible. They don't believe
their supporters are coherent enough to criticize the Republican
officials for their own tax cuts for the rich.
Since this tax cut for the rich is indeed a bad thing, the Democrats
should wise up and take it out of the bill.
In addition, Republicans are blaming Biden for the
increase of Covid-19 in the US, which Republicans caused by opposing masks and vaccination.
What it comes down to is, the America's saboteurs are blaming
America's (far from perfect) defenders for being thwarted by their
sabotage.
The company that proposed the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline is
using NAFTA (the original version) to
sue the US for 15 billion dollars for cancelling the pipeline.
This exemplifies the danger of business-supremacy treaties such as
NAFTA to efforts to save the world's ecosphere from fossil fuel.
Too much power in the US is in the
hands of entities unaccountable to the people.
Republicans are working hard to assure that Congress and the presidency
become unaccountable too.
Netflix dodges taxes using
tax havens, much like Amazon and other big companies.
China is fuming after the
US invited Taiwan to participate in a democracy summit.
Taiwan's government is the only democracy in the whole territory that
China claims, so if this summit was to have any participation from
that territory, it could only be from Taiwan.
Residents of Massachusetts: support the bill to stop suspending
driver's licenses over debt.
Apple has sued the company NSO that made the notorious crack-and-spy program, Pegasus.
If this were the start of a general campaign by Apple to sue all
companies that make spyware for the iMonsters, it would be admirable
(though it would not excuse making the iMonster software nonfree).
But I don't expect that. I expect it will be limited to the snooping
done by programs that are not authorized to be on the machine at all
— which means, disregarding the bulk of snooping.
Shall we expect Apple to sue Google, Amazon, Zoom and Uber for
snooping on Apple users?
Shall we expect Apple to sue Apple for snooping on Apple users?
Cop Julia Crews shot Ashley Fountain Hall and wounded her severely,
through confusion (she thought she was pulling a taser). Afterward,
Ms Hall chose restorative justice mediation instead of a criminal trial
for Ms Crews.
Five Georgia thugs are charged with murder for pushing a handcuffed man
into the pavement.
The left alliance won the Venezuelan election, while Guaido's
golpista alliance is generally despised and won almost nothing.
The democratic opposition, more popular than the golpistas, did win
some offices.
The child-care funding in the Build Back Better (relief) bill requires
state approval in each state.
Republicans may use their power in many states to block approval,
because they expect that suffering in the US will be blamed on Biden
and Democrats.
Starbucks workers in some stores are holding union elections. The
company has closed some stores, and is calling workers in for pressure
harassment sessions in others.
I have hardly ever done business with Starbucks, simply because their
products don't appeal to my tastes. (I don't like coffee, for
instance.) So I can't boycott Starbucks in any nontrivial way. But
maybe you can. If you go to a Starbucks store where you have often
bought something, ask for the manager, and say that you're going to
boycott Starbucks because of its anti-union harassment.
* DoorDash to pay $5.3 million to S.F. couriers over alleged violations of past
benefits*
(satire) *NFL Study Finds Concussion Symptoms Completely Disappear If
You've Had An Even Number Of Concussions.*
(satire) *Fish Way Too High On OxyContin Runoff To Give A Shit About
Species' Inevitable Extinction.*
* Lush has announced it is closing its accounts on Facebook,
[81]Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok until the social media sites do a
better job of protecting users from harmful [postings].*
Lush will not "ask customers to 'meet us down a dark and dangerous
alleyway'."
Biden raised the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $15 per hour.
The world's wealthy must now pay for providing the vaccine that can
more or less put an end to malaria.
Norwegian journalists in Qatar, reporting on how foreign workers are
treated, were arrested and held for 3 days while they tried to go home
to Norway.
Michael Moore explains that the US plans a memorial for the dead of
the "Global War on Terrorism" — to commemorate only the Americans
that were killed, not the others that Americans killed.
I disagree with the article's final point. Moore asserts that
imposing poverty and suffering on many people, Americans and others,
constitutes "terrorism." I disagree. The proper word for that is
"oppression."
"Terrorism" is something much more specific — making war on
civilians. For all sorts of other systematic cruelty, the word
"oppression" is strong enough condemnation.
*El Salvador rights groups fear repression after raids on seven offices.*
*Atlantic fishing nations agree to ban catches of mako, world’s
fastest sharks.*
The killers of Ahmaud Arbery have been convicted of murder.
Norway's parliament is fractious, but its prime minister demonstrates
respect for democracy.
India's apple orchards are mainly in Kashmir, and an apparent change
in the climate is wiping out the apples year after the year.
Most US officials are quite reluctant to reconsider old criminal
convictions based on science that we now know to be false.
In the name of justice, there ought to be a systematic effort to find
these cases and reconsider them.
*Seven doctors
contract Covid after attending Florida anti-vaccine summit.*
Opposition to vaccines is indicative of an irrational approach towards
medicine, which in a doctor says you shouldn't choose that one.
Keeping Jerome Powell as head of the Federal Reserve will
interfere with climate defense and can interfere with helping the non-rich.
Keeping inflation down will harm Americans who are in debt, and that is a large fraction.
As for diversity, appointing women or blacks could in principle inject
a little more awareness of what it's like to face individual and
systemic discrimination. That would be the case with a
randomly-chosen woman or black. But these nominees would hardly be
randomly chosen; they would be bankers, and likely to hold
plutocratist views regardless of other personal details.
Kay Raworth's "doughnut model" of
economics is briefly described near the end of this article.
As presented here, it seems to make a valid point, but I think the
article makes a conceptual error in calling it an "economic model" and
presenting it as an alternative to profit-based behavior economics, as if
the two were different answers to one question. I think they answer
two different questions.
Profit-motivated economics invites people to ask, "How can I get ahead?"
Raworth's economics invites people to ask, "What do we all need?"
The president of Cop26 presents
the "half full" appraisal of the results of that event.
Teachers can't be neutral in the classroom about politics when
one political party has declared war on the idea of truth.
The Missouri bill cited in the article is interesting, because it
juxtaposes a valid point with an invalid point, in such a way as to
partly hide the latter.
It is wrong to teach that certain groups of people are inherently or
immutably racist, or inherently or immutably hold any views
whatsoever, because such is prejudice. People vary, and people can learn.
However, teaching that certain groups of people are systemically
oppressed, or that certain institutions are systemically racist, is
legitimate because that is a verifiable fact about existing systems.
Here's one example of verification.
This truth doesn't conflict with the truth that people vary and that
people can learn. Systems can change, too, but that doesn't deny that
they are now what they are now.
The bill groups people with institutions, and groups "inherently" with
"systemically", so as to confuse.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators to support the law to restart postal banking.
US citizens: call on
call on the Senate to pass the For the People Act.
For voting rights reform.
US citizens: call on
Wall Street to stop funding insurrectionist Republicans.
US citizens: phone your senators and call on them to insist on
substantial cuts in the military budget, and suggest adding the funds
to the Build Back Better (relief and climate) bill.
I got a campaign you could use to send a message to your senators,
but since it requires nonfree Javascript code, I could not use
it and I will not refer others to it.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
The missiles that Biden wants to sell to Salafi Arabia this time are
air-to-air missiles.
Since the Houthis have no air force, these missiles would not be
very useful for actual fighting against them. But they could be used
for blockading Yemen's airport.
A wild bee that lives two years suffers reduced reproduction in its
second year after a single exposure to imidacloprid (a neonicotinoid
pesticide) in its first year.
The UK has put a maximum amount any person must pay for medically
needed home care. Beyond that amount, it will be gratis
until they change the law.
However, the limit is so high that it leaves the poorer old people in a
bad situation where they will need to sell their homes.
Australian climate activist Eric Serge Herbert has been sentenced to a year in prison for stopping a coal train.
Cuba's independently developed Covid-19 vaccines have proved effective
protection.
Radio host Joe Madison is on hunger strike, demanding the passage of
effective federal voting rights legislation.
The mass poverty caused by the freezing of Afghanistan's assets
is causing the country's banks to start to collapse too.
* Environmentalists on Monday hailed the shutdown of Portugal's last
coal-fired power plant—a move that came nearly nine years ahead of the
government's 2030 target—while warning against converting the facility
to run on unsustainable biofuel.*
Biofuel made from microbes or from otherwise-worthless agricultural
waste would be a very efficient fuel, but government incentives (in
the US and the EU) promote growing crops such as corn with
fertilizer made from oil only to convert them into fuel
-- a practice we could call "biowashing the oil."
(satire) *Tucker Carlson Late To Work After Being Murdered By Hordes
Of Violent Minorities Again.*
*Raids, Arrests, and Death Threats: Israel's Strategy of Silencing
Human Rights Defenders.*
These attacks against Palestinian human rights organizations began
over a decade ago. Arbitrarily labeling them "terrorist" was just
the latest step.
Medea Benjamin claims that the US is arming Ukraine offensively
against Russia and looking to start a war.
Her arguments are logical based on the one-sided understanding of the
situation that the article presents -- in which Putin's actions cannot
be judged, and the US is automatically to blame if Putin starts a war.
That approach grants legitimacy to any aggression he might try.
It is Russia that has launched armed warfare against Ukraine, first by
seizing Crimea, then by organizing a rebellion near the Russian border —
accompanied in both cases by duplicity. There was also the attempt to
seize power in Odessa.
Putin is an audacious,
opportunistic, power-grabbing bully that despises truth, much like the wrecker.
Taking an attitude of "make sure
never to cross his red lines" toward Putin is equivalent to "give him
whatever he grabs, and always back down."
The natural way to resist that is to arm Ukraine for defense, but not
start a fight. To confront Putin's red lines with other red lines, so
that both sides will let the situation stabilize and quiet down.
What the US is doing looks like that to me.
*India’s farmers have won — but this doesn’t mean Modi is softening.*
China's leaders ask, "Why do you make such a fuss about our
disappearing Peng Shuai, when the other things we are doing are
millions of times worse?" ;-{.
Right-wing extremists are pressuring the city councils of small cities
to ban abortion.
*Want to fight for climate action but feel daunted or powerless? Try this.*
*XTRA GUAC: Here’s Everything Enbridge Is Buying Cops to Fight Protesters.*
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the Build Back Better (climate
and relief) bill.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
US citizens: call on the Fish and Wildlife Service to fully protect
Mexican gray wolves.
US citizens: call on senators to pass the PRO
Act, to help workers unionize.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
The US has been recognized as a "backsliding" democracy.
*How the chemicals industry's [greenhouse gas] pollution slipped under
the radar.*
*I’m a therapist to the super-rich: they are as miserable as Succession
makes out.*
Their children can be totally messed up.
However, as a billionaire, you can always spend the rest of your life
developing a line of space ships.
Canadian national thugs arrested anti-pipeline protesters
and two journalists who were with them.
High-pressure schooling, pushing children into tutoring, tends to hurt
the children while giving additional advantage to those with the
richest parents.
If the tutoring is a temporary attempt to make up for time lost while
schools were closed or remote, it may disappear of its own accord.
But if it continues, I think it may be a reflection of too much
competitiveness in society -- a consequence of the large fraction
of people that nowadays are poor.
In the UK, sentences for crimes are getting longer, but this has not
had any effect on the likelihood of committing another crime.
Yet another one of the few instances of attempted voter fraud in 2020
was traced to a Republican.
Alas, proving that Republican propaganda was false is ineffective at
thwarting their lie campaign. The campaign had drilled the belief
into millions of Americans' heads, by organizing so many sources to
spread the disinformation,
and now they reinforce each others'
beliefs, regardless of evidence.
*Justin Bieber called on by fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi to cancel Saudi
Arabia concert.*
Most independent US retailers will shut their web sites on Friday
to protest "black friday" and Amazon.
People demand that the UK government publish the algorithm by which it
decides whom to accuse of welfare fraud.
*Covid Killed More Americans in 2021 Than 2020, and the GOP Death Cult
Is Mostly to Blame.*
That's some 390,000 in 2021 and some 385,000 in 2020.
Ralph Nader: the right to sue big companies for injuries they cause,
and get damages enough to make them avoid injuring people, is getting
chipped away step by step by courts and legislatures.
The EU is considering funding a new gas pipeline to fuel a power plant
in Malta. This should be an outrage -- how dare the EU consider doing
something so dangerous?
This power plant may be linked to the assassination of journalist
Daphne Caruana Galizia.
I hope her murderers, including those who plotted the murder, are
caught and convicted, and they should not be allowed to profit from
their crime. But when it comes to whether to subsidize a fossil-fuel
pipeline, we need to focus on the main issue: building fossil fuel
infrastructure endangers everyone. This pipeline can kill thousands
of people, and help kill millions.
Suppose that there had been no assassination and Ms Caruana Galizia
were still alive. Would that make it acceptable to subsidize fossil
fuel infrastructure? Surely not.
Sudan's military government agreed to release political prisoners
and share power with the civilian government again.
The article explains how this doesn't mean that all's well in Sudan,
but it's at least a step in the right direction.
Several kinds of medical devices were designed based on whites or
based on white males, and can give bad results for other patients.
The UAE has used Interpol for revenge against political "crimes".
This is additional reason to be concerned about the possibility that
a UAE official might become president of Interpol.
The problem with Interpol is systemic: other countries have used
Interpol for repression of dissidents, because it is effective for
that purpose.
It seems to me that avoiding
the election of one potentially bad president is not enough to address
the problem. Its system for handling red notices needs modification
so that other countries will think twice about a suspect named in one,
rather than reflexively arresting per.
Papua New Guinea is on track to vaccinate 1/3 of its population
against Covid-19 in five years.
The rest of the world must provide more vaccine.
Australia's government is right-wing in general, not only planet-roaster.
It allowed hunger to spread in Australia since a decade ago.
The University of Austin's roster of personnel is full of right-wing
thinkers, and has no progressives. Nadine Strossen says that that's
not by choice.
The author suggests that the progressive propensity to cancellation
has made academics with leftist views scared to get involved. It
would be a shame if the founders really want to welcome all views, and
a self-fulfilling prophecy dooms the University of Austin to be the
right-wing advocacy group that its current roster suggests.
Rio Tinto wants to open a large lithium and boron mine in Serbia.
That would be very useful for renewable electricity, but the mine
can be toxic.
We can divide the mine's pollution risks into two kinds: local and
regional. Rio Tinto can avoid harming local residents and farmers by
buying them out at a price sufficiently above the market value that
they will be able to move elsewhere easily.
The regional risks, such as polluting rivers, are more difficult. The
world can't afford to risk the long-term ruination of fresh water
supplies. As one of the farmers said in the article, you can't trust
Rio Tinto's word that the mine will be safe. Serbia must consult
independent experts about what precautions could make sure that the
mine does not pollute them, and then insist on those precautions.
Congresscritters should be entirely forbidden to trade in stocks.
Two former prisoners of the UAE, jailed and tortured for supporting
the wrong football team, campaign to stop a UAE official from becoming
the head of Interpol, because he was the inspector general in charge
of preventing and stopping torture.
Protesters blocked three bridges in London in solidarity with the
climate protesters of Insulate Britain,
who were jailed for blocking a
highway as a protest to demand specific climate defense actions.
Insulate Britain's demands are valid, and the inconvenience their
protest caused was trivial compared with the inconvenience they are
trying to avert. However, their method of protest backfired, so they
need to find a more effective method.
Boston has decided to divest the city's funds from fossil fuel
companies.
Arguing that resource limits and degradation of the natural world
will put a limit on economic growth soon.
The US temporarily transferred some FBI agents to the CIA, and they
tortured prisoners along with the other CIA agents.
Medicare Advantage companies overcharge Medicare, and the burden of that
contributes to making Medicare more expensive.
I don't see evidence that there is a plan to abolish basic Medicare,
but even without that, it is still a significant problem.
To reduce greenhouse emissions from transport, electric cars are just
the first step.
Amazon's lobbying, and funds to buy legislators, has killed many US state
bills to increase privacy requirements.
Amazon collects so much data about individuals that it can't keep track
of whether all of it is secure against third parties.
None of it is secure against Amazon itself.
The next world climate conference will have no unofficial protests,
because it will be in Egypt.
Holding summits in inaccessible places was one of the ways plutocratist
leaders prevented mass protests after the meetings in Seattle.
Studies of Hitler's holocaust show:
the cumbersome machinery of the state is the last protector of the vulnerable.
Hitler, and likewise other totalitarian rulers, established parallel
structures to work their will, bypassing rule-bound state structures
that were less ready to follow shocking orders. These included the SS
and the Red Guards, and perhaps now the Oath Keepers.
Another similar case: the US destroyed the Iraqi state structure, and this led to a bloody civil war, followed by PISSI.
Proposing a simple rule-based system for
funding support for poor countries to deal with global heating.
I think that all the major emitters should be taxed the same on new emissions.
*Nearly two-thirds of people who migrate to the UK in small boats are
deemed to be
genuine refugees and allowed to remain.*
Florida, dominated by the Covid-19 party, has passed a law banning
vaccine mandates unless they permit religious exemptions.
before global heating damage causes it to collapse.
The idea of a religious exemption for vaccination is absurd. Whatever
your religion says, it cannot excuse you from public health
requirements.
A future history for this century: if a new Chinese illiberal world order
replaces the liberal but imperialist US world order, it won't last long
before global heating damage causes it to collapse.
US citizens:
call on Twitter to expel Paul Gosar.
US citizens:
call on the Senate to end gerrymandering.
US citizens: call on
Senator Manchin to pass the Build Back Better Act now.
US citizens: call on the Biden administration to
stop the sale of oil leases in Cook Inlet in Alaska.
Biden supports negotiating a treaty to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean.
I've read that the main source of plastic waste in the ocean
is from abandoned fishing lines and nets.
Some of them go on entangling and killing wildlife until they break down.
A treaty could require all fishing boats to return all unusable lines and nets
for safe disposal.
*Markey Amendment Would Redirect 1% of Funds From 'Bloated' Pentagon
to Address Climate Crisis.*
This bill would cut the military budget by 8 billion dollars and spend
the money on improving US national security by helping poor countries
cope with global heating effects.
(satire) *Texas Bans Access To Tall Staircases In Case Women With
Unwanted Pregnancies Get Any Ideas.*
(satire) *Fannie Mae Issues Billions Of Mortgage-Backed NFTs.*
The BBC has the same problem as mainstream US media in trying to be
impartial when covering a party that attacks the idea of truth.
Northern Sweden is making large factories for batteries and steel, to
run on copious hydroelectiric power, and seeks 100,000 people to move
there for jobs.
*Pollutionwatch: the double benefit of cutting methane emissions.*
Recognizing an error in the date of the supposed first reported case
of Covid-19 makes it clear that the outbreak started at the Wuhan wet
market.
*White-supremacist prison guards work with impunity in Florida.*
It's not much better in the rest of the US. Many prisons (and thug
departments) make no effort to check whether a job candidate is an
overt racist.
The article linked to above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
Private kidnapers now add to Afghanistan's suffering.
US citizens: call on your Senators to oppose S.A. 4653 and any other
increases in military budget.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
*US legislation banning [PFAs] far from certain as Senate fight looms.*
Some states have passed laws to ban them in paper products.
*Amazon Will Face Black Friday Strikes and Protests in 20 Countries.*
Kashmiris accuse Indian thugs of using a few Kashmiris as human
shields in a gun-fight with supposed militant separatists, who may
not even have existed.
They buried the victims' bodies secretly, perhaps to prevent an autopsy
from learning the truth of how they were killed.
*US wildfires have killed nearly 20% of world's giant sequoias in two years.*
West coast US fishermen are suing fossil fuel companies because the
heating and acidification of the ocean are interfering with species to
be fished, and with the safety of catching and eating them.
Encouraging the murder of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has made Rep. Gosar
a star among right-wing fanatics, and won him an endorsement from the wrecker.
Compared with this, being censured and losing committee assignments
was insignificant, a price he considers worth paying. Indeed, he said
as much by tweeting that veiled call to murder a second time. Gosar
is boasting, "You can't stop me."
Democrats need to find a way to punish Gosar and others who stir up a
right-wing coup, one that will make them conclude that it isn't worth
the price.
* Copenhagen was a failure that demotivated activists, while Paris merely
placated them. But Glasgow has radicalized a generation.*
Boston has decided to move its municipal funds permanently out of
fossil fuels.
The city has no choice about investment of its pension funds, sad to say.
John Deere workers accepted a new contract, considerably better than what they were offered before the strike.
Economist Friedrich Hayek is revered by conservatives, who would be
shocked to find that he endorsed many aspects of Sanders's democratic
socialism.
Disposable diapers add up to a large fraction of plastic waste.
Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges. It seems that
Rittenhouse made arguable claims of self-defense; which were helped to
dominate the outcome by the possible right-wing prejudice of the
judge, plus the all-white jury.
*Now it’s open season on protesters.*
After all, lots of white jurors might be eager to acquit right-wingers that
kill protesters. This is a right-wing radicalization point.
That article projects the possible consequences of a willingness to let
right-wing vigilantes get away with killing protesters.
*As Kyle Rittenhouse Walks Free,
Republican Lawmakers Fight Over Who Loves Him the Most.*
*Austria plans compulsory Covid vaccination for all.*
However, it will properly allow medical exceptions
for those who have a medical condition that precludes vaccination.
19 years imprisonment and torture, in Guantanamo and elsewhere, seem
to have driven Abdulqadir al Madhfari mad. When he was returned to
Yemen, he said his relatives were impersonators plotting against him,
and ran away.
Australia's planet roasters plan to reduce emissions using the
nonexistent technology of burning biomass and capturing the CO2.
It might not be a bad thing to do, provided it uses waste plant
material which requires no cultivation, but should civilization bet
its survival on an untried extension of a technology that so far has
failed?
*No country has met welfare goals in past 30 years "without putting
planet at risk."*
* Looking at a sample of 148 nations, research by the University of Leeds
found wealthy countries were putting the future of the planet at risk
to make minimal gains in human welfare, while poor countries were
living within ecological boundaries but underachieving in areas such as
life expectancy and access to energy.*
This does not imply that it is impossible to provide everyone with a
good life while operating sustainably, only that the path countries
have taken does not lead there. Reducing luxuries for the rich, and
meat production (though meat is not limited to the rich), would help.
A smaller population would help a lot.
*Sudan pro-democracy activists call for escalation after lethal crackdown.*
The US and China have major political influence in Africa. I wonder
what the US is doing to influence developments in Sudan, and what
outcome it is pushing for, and likewise China.
Indian politicians have decided that it is easier to ban criticism of
the nation's problems than to do something about them.
In effect, they prefer to make people admire India rather than make
India admirable.
Every country has such exploiters. What is so bad for India is that
the ruling party and its supporters take that stance. Supporters of
the BJP are saying, "Don't make things better, lie to us instead."
That request will surely be granted.
How Republicans are using gerrymandering this year to guarantee
they get a majority in legislatures with a minority of votes.
The whole Republican Party has signed on to this "by hook or by crook"
system of seizing illegitimate power. It's not as violent as a military coup,
but in the long term it will kill more people.
Qatar's fancy hotels, recommended by the football association FIFA,
pay their workers about a dollar per hour.
Since the government forbids them to leave Qatar, they are effectively
slaves of their employer. To the extent that there are laws to protect
workers, the hotels violate them with impunity.
*The moral case for destroying fossil fuel infrastructure.*
(And for canceling fossil fuel contracts by fiat.)
I previously suggested that Pacific island nations whose territory is
being inundated by global heating could declare war on Australia and
counterattack by sinking some of Australia's coal-export ships.
It should be possible to do that in ways that allow the ships' crew
to get away in lifeboats.
They are starting to organize pressure on Australia and such.
About the Congressional panel that investigated the insurrection of 1860.
About Portugal's law forbidding employers to contact employees outside
work hours.
This is tremendously important for those for whom work is just a job,
for whom there is something else more important. And that's most
people, I think. But this rule can be devastating for people like me,
we who do work that is the center of our life, we for whom "family
time" usually means forced-to-wait time, and perhaps alone-and-bored
time too.
We need a way we can get out of this rule.
It can't be easy and arbitrary. If it's sufficient for a worker (or
contractor) to say, "Please let my employer contact me 24/7,"
employers will effectively coerce workers into saying that against
their preferences.
Perhaps everyone will have to have a free software volunteer project
to occupy perself with while cut off from the work project.
A country which has a law requiring small companies to respond somehow
within 24 hours — as some real or proposed internet censorship laws
do — had better not require them to hire several people for this,
just to have someone available at every hour of every day.
*SF received $1.5 million to explore online voting. Critics think it’s
a horrible idea.
Using computers to receive and record votes is already foolish and dangerous.
Letting those computers communicate with anyone else is totally asking to lose.
*US mountain states battle wildfires despite impending winter.*
Biden's nominee for comptroller of the currency moved to the US from
the Soviet Union just after it collapsed. Republican senators tried
to call her a communist simply because she was born there.
The Build Back Better relief bill includes a new tax on profits of large
corporations, which will reduce their tax dodging.
Not as much we ought to reduce it, but it is a step forward.
(satire) *Disney Acquires All Of America's Children For $52 Billion.
"Ship Them To Us And We Will Do As We Wish," Says CEO Bob Chapek.*
Experts criticize Bill Gates's plan for "small" fission reactors
cooled by liquid sodium. The most obvious flaw is that the sodium burns if it gets in contact
with air.
Various approaches to providing electricity at all times using renewable
sources.
New South Wales reopened activities with most people vaccinated, but kept
test-and-trace and mask requirements. Case rates have remained very low.
China is flipping out because Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a trade
office using the name "Taiwan".
Indian farmers made Modi announce he will repeal the laws they have
been protesting for a year.
But they don't trust his word on that, and they demand more.
See
for a description of these laws.
Testimony in Salvini's trial for trying to stop a rescue ship carrying
147 refugees (rescued from small boats) from landing in Italy for a
long time.
The Woman's Tennis Association has shown courage in standing up for
its disappeared Chinese member Peng Shuai.
Usually western companies and organizations are so desperate for
profits from China that they bow down to whatever China demands.
About several prominent Chinese who have been disappeared, partly or
totally.
The list does not mention the Panchen Lama and his family.
*Climate campaigners take South Africa to court over coal policy.*
A large part of the "great resignation" which has caused the US labor
shortage involves working mothers who were forced to quit because they
couldn't rely on schools as a place to put their children while working.
Perhaps economic considerations will convince states to allow mothers
to leave more children alone at home.
*US faces nurse shortage from burnout.*
US citizens: call on
colleges and universities to stop charging students for credits they accrued through unpaid internships.
A company tries to prejudge who is a criminal, or an extremist, or
whatever,
or will become one of those things, based on people's Facebook social links.
The people that you communicate with on line tend to influence your
actions. Therefore, trying to predict what you will do (for instance,
commit crimes or not) based on such links ought to be more accurate
than chance.
Nonetheless, it is wrong to prejudge people that way. We have to judge
people based on what they actually do, not based on what they seemed
likely to do.
The EU is considering a directive to require companies sending various
agricultural products to the EU to prove
their products were not related to deforestation.
The products proposed are beef, wood, palm oil, soy, coffee and cocoa.
If other big importers sign on to this, it could make a big difference.
The Tories want to give the British state the power to
cancel someone's citizenship without even informing the person.
The victim would learn of this arbitrary act when trying to enter the UK.
*Report Finds Gruesome Medical Malpractice and Death in Arizona Prisons.*
*South Korea has probably the best Covid response in the world. What
can the UK [or US] learn?*
*Brazil’s Amazon beef plan will "legalize deforestation," say critics.*
The US and China made a reciprocal deal about journalists' visas.
I think it is wrong for the US to require journalists to get special visas.
If you are allowed to be in the US, you should be allowed to publish
about what you see here.
At least, that should be the case for countries that have the same rules
for Americans.
*AI surveillance takes U.S. prisons by storm.*
Bernie Sanders opposes the Senate's plan for a ten-billion-dollar
consolation prize to Bezos.
A large music venue in Colorado asks concertgoers to speed up the line
by allowing palm scans.
Amazon says this is safe because the scans are sent over the
internet to an Amazon server. What happens to the data once there is
cloudy.
Many states are passing laws allowing just about anyone to carry a gun
in public. This adds more danger to any confrontation.
The right to openly carry guns theoretically applies to everyone, but
in practice a black can't dare do it, since the first passing thug is
likely to kill per.
(satire) *NFT Investor Reminds Skeptics Everything Else In World
Stupid And Meaningless Too.*
New Zealand's antivax fanatics may be less than 1% of the population,
but they have given over to raving hatred, and threaten others with
violent death as well as death by Covid-19.
It is everyone's duty to help protect the rest from Covid-19, and
letting this violent hatred stew will encourage them to get more
violent. I suggest that the government adopt a policy that whenever
they arrest someone, they use that opportunity to vaccinate per as well
(in the absence of medical reasons not to). Once anti-vaxxers see that
vaccination is not bad for them, they will find it hard to keep the
hate going.
I reworded the above paragraph on Nov 30 make comprehension easier.
It used to read, "I suggest that the government adopt a policy of
vaccinating everyone that is arrested."
*Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rises by more than a fifth in a year.*
We now need to protect the northern forests in Canada, Russia and the
US. They store a lot of carbon, and if they burn up, we can't
possibly replace them between now and 2050.
*Sanders Says Deficit Concerns "Seem to Melt Away" When It's Time to
Fill Pentagon Coffers.*
Sanders voted against the military appropriations bill
to protest the Senate's prioritizing that over the spending that the
US really needs.
Belarus has pulled the migrants out of the border area with Poland and
into Belarus, and given them food. Apparently Lukashenko has given up
on trying to use them to attack Poland.
*Hydrogen produced by fossil fuels is more expensive, will release
more greenhouse gas emissions and comes with a greater risk of
creating stranded assets,
according to new research from the Australian National University.*
However, the former method of producing hydrogen would offer more
profits to the planet roasters.
The US plans to produce a billion doses of
Covid-19 (or other) vaccine per year.
This is good, but it doesn't make up for the developed world's insistence
on maintaining a monopoly that stops India and Brazil from doing this.
*Fossil fuel companies
owe reparations to countries they are destroying.*
In principle, they do -- but there is a conflict between the goal of
extracting money from them for some other cause (worthy as it may be)
and the goal of ramping down their operations.
The "QAnon Shaman" has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison
for attacking the Capitol.
Two of the people convicted of helping to assassinate Malcolm X
were exonerated after it became clear that
prosecutors concealed evidence in their trials.
We often find that this has happened in US trials. Correcting the
dishonesty decades later is better than not correcting it, but a
"justice system" that often lies in court is rotten. How can we
make prosecutors stop lying?
Mexican marines, trained by the US, are
disappearing people for the US war on drugs.
British Columbia and Washington State have suffered a compound climate
disaster: massive fires,
followed by rains on the denuded slopes which washed away the soil.
I fear that trees won't be able to grow back on those slopes, for want
of soil. Over the next decade, the mountains may become permanently
denuded in this way. To regenerate soil would require thousands of
years.
Both the fires and the rains were caused by global heating.
"Atmospheric rivers" are more frequent now than they were in the past.
Apple said it would allow purchasers of
iMonsters to repair them.
This would eliminate ijustices out of the many injustices of the iMonster.
Extreme rain, due to global heating, has caused disaster in a large
part of British Columbia.
Landslides have blocked roads.
All land routes into Vancouver are blocked, and railroads will take a long time to repair.
Much of the nearby city of Abbotsford has been flooded.
The flooded houses will probably have to be torn down and rebuilt.
Sudanese soldiers shot pro-democracy protesters in
Khartoum, killing 14 of them.
The House took away Rep. Gosar's committee assignments to punish him
for posting
a death threat.
What punishment could change their minds?
I've read that conservatives make moral judgments about people based
on how they obey authority and how much they follow cleanliness rules.
This suggests that an effective form of punishment would be
something that makes him appear disobedient and disgusting.
For instance, requiring him to wear a dirt-smeared rag instead of clothing.
Masks cut the number of Covid-19 cases by half --
even among vaccinated people.
The Palestinian human rights groups that Israel labeled "terrorist"
still
receiving support from foreign human rights groups.
Which reject the false labeling of them.
Australian climate activists have blocked a
coal export terminal and used emergency switches to shut down its operations.
The state has threatened them with 25-year prison sentences. "It’s not
as scary as the future we are heading to" said a protester.
I think that all imprisoned nonviolent climate protesters will be
pardoned in at most 15 years. By then, no government will be able to
deny that they were heroes.
Metaverse schemes seen as new ways of reshaping the
internet into a system to dominate and shape human beings.
*Patrick Leahy Announces He Won’t Seek
Reelection To Make Room For Next Generation Of 70-Year-Olds.*
*New Report on "Grocery Cartels"
Details Exploitive Retailer Monopolies.*
The US has only four major supermarket chains -- although there are
a lot of different brands, many supermarket brands are subsidiaries of
the big four.
Many specific kinds of foods also have too few competitors.
(satire) *Higher Prices May
Force Americans To Eat Reasonable Portions On Thanksgiving.*
A 14-year-old black Londoner accuses the thugs of racial profiling
after
they stopped him on the street and searched him, 30 times.
There is evidence that using marijuana in
pregnancy may cause aggression and anxiety for the resulting children.
However, this
result is tentative as the sample was small.
Marijuana use during pregnancy seems to cause many other problems for
the resulting children.
(satire) *Americans Assure Pentagon
They Don't Care Enough To Make Cover Up Drone Strikes Worthwhile.*
The planet roasters' new alternative to cutting fossil fuels is to
promote use of
natural gas and call it "low carbon" fossil fuel.
It doesn't actually result in less greenhouse emissions, though.
The article compares this to "low tar" cigarettes, which putatively
reduced the danger of smoking but actually didn't.
Pfizer has licensed its new Covid-19 treatment for generic production
--
for countries containg half the world's population.
The other half, around 90 countries, it will probably gouge to get
the most possible money from each. The way to do that is by setting,
for each country, a price that many of its citizens can't afford.
Global heating effects are destroying the
ancient rock art of ancient Austrailia
Some TikTok influencers are spreading functional neurological syndrome
(a disorder including unconcious tics) by showing videos of them.
I believe showing these videos should be prohibited. People must be
free to express any ideas or points of view, but a tic is not a point
of view. People who see the tic videos and start imitating them are not
making a decision based on the video, they are falling prey to it.
The famous US court decision that it is a crime to shout "fire" in a
crowded theater was based on the argument that in such circumstances
people cannot take time to judge rationally how to respond.
This also reminds me of Triolet in "How to talk to girls at parties."
Europe's bird population has
declined by 16% since 1980.
Germany has delayed certification of the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
from
Russia to Germany, on grounds of financial details.
This may not have any bigger significance, but I hope that it does.
Europe must limit its fossil fuel use, not expand it, and it needs to
limit Putin's power, not expand it.
Governments did not agree to a deal to save the ecosphere from global
heeting,
but there are deals working on some big parts of the problem.
The UK Science Museum is
being rejected by some scientists for its deals with fossil fuel companies.
US meat companies made workers so powerless, and the regulatory
agencies too, that neither
could do anything to make the companies protect them from spreading disease to each other.
The four big meat companies crush unions and bully local governments,
even state governments. It would be a very good thing to break them
up into 40 competing companies.
Acceptable
imitation meat seems to be on the horizon now.
From the article, it seems some tuning is still needed, but I expect that
a few years of work will get it right.
Meanwhile, where is there a restaurant that will cook wheat gluten
that actually tastes exactly like wheat gluten, instead of pretending
to be meat and failing laughably?
A campaign to lead the staff of the
NHS to get vaccinated describes
methods that are effective.
I support outreach and communication methods like these. I also
support vaccine mandates with no exceptions other than medical ones.
Both are effective and they are not mutually exclusive.
Several Walgreens stores supported poor people in San Francisco
through massive shoplifting. Now they plan to close the stores,
because they are losing money.
I can't blame the company for closing these stores, but I also agree
that the poor people of those neighborhoods deserve food to eat. I
think it is the city's responsibility to provide food by setting up
food banks in these areas, and pay for them out of taxes.
Due to increased temperatures, children who stay outdoors in Freetown,
Sierra Leone, now risk heat rashes.
Another global heating effect is diminishing crop yields.
Meanwhile, the rising ocean is causing floods.
The city is trying to cope with the various problems, but treating the
symptoms will work only so far. The only real solution is to stop the
cause of the problem, and that is mainly in the big emitters: China,
US, India, Europe, Australia.
*Palm oil land grabs ‘trashing’ environment and displacing people.*
Humans may be able to reduce the world land demand for meat, as we
learn to eat less meat and as its price discourages purchase. But it
will be very hard to do this with palm oil. My recommendation is,
make fewer humans — since that tends to reduce so many other world
problems.
The UK suffers from a revolving door for ministers,
much like the US.
When Ugandan thugs jailed opposition leaders before the election,
they jailed the leaders' children too.
They have all been tortured and held in horrible conditions — for instance,
so crowded that they couldn't find a spot of floor to sleep on.
Global heating has enabled armadillos to spread from their former home
in Texas all he way to Nebraska and Virginia.
China has disappeared tennis pro Peng Shuai after she said that the
former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli coerced her into having sex with him.
*Rising humidity could be linked to increase in suicides, report finds.*
*How workers unknowingly fund [fossil fuel companies] with their
pensions,*
which is risky for the workers as well as the world.
* The Organization of American States is no longer credible. We need a
new body [to scrutinize democratic procedures] if we are to protect
democracy [in the Americas].*
The article presents examples of how the OAS has acted duplicitously
to favor US foreign policy.
Four Kenyan thugs have been convicted of killing a British visitor in
jail.
It took 9 years to do this, even helped by the aristocratic connections
of the man they killed.
The UK is running its medical personnel into the ground.
*Alex Jones liable for damages over Sandy Hook shooting claims, judge rules.*
It's past time to impose a penalty on lying about people.
The EPA found that the pesticide Atrazine harms 1013 protected species,
while glyphosate harms 1676 of them.
Everyone: call on
Walmart to raise its minimum wage to $15/hr.
US citizens: call on the EPA to
take action against polluters that harm frontline communities.
Everyone: reject Amazon --
buy your gifts (and whatever else you buy) from local stores.
I follow that policy for all my purchases, all year round.
US citizens: call on Congress
to provide more food to food banks.
US citizens: call on Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Intel, Target, Dell, Cisco, and Boston Scientific
to stop donating to Anti-Voting Rights
Members of Congress.
US citizens: call on senators to sponsor the Fossil-Free Finance Act.
Tax dodging reportedly amounted to almost $500 billion last year,
and Britain is responsible for 200 billion of that.
*Cuba democracy protests thwarted after rallies banned and leaders arrested.*
The Cuban government claims this is a proxy for a campaign for
destabilization and regime change. That could be true, or not.
What do these leaders advocate doing about other issues if they
win the political rights that Cubans are entitled to?
*Drug Decriminalization in Oregon, One Year Later: Thousands of Lives Not
Ruined by Possession Arrests, $300 Million+ in Funding for Services.*
The Tory way to help a depressed area's economy is to give privileges
to businesses in that area — for instance, tax exemptions.
There are many ways to use public funds to help rebuild the economy of
a region. I suspect that politicians' enthusiasm for local "enterprise
zones" as a method comes from the desire to reduce taxes on business
and thus shift more wealth to the wealthy. The more parts of a country
enjoy the lower tax rate, the more of a disadvantage other parts will
claim to suffer, until finally they all get the same tax reduction for
business.
Unauthorized immigrants in the UK are afraid that they will be deported if
they go to get vaccinated.
US citizens: call on Biden to cancel the memo with which the wrecker tried
to block approval of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Through the Human Library you can arrange a conversation with someone who
represents a point of view or way of life that you feel uncomfortable with.
The Capitol thug department's jail housed mainly people of little
influence until this year, and treated them like dirt. Now people are
being jailed for attacking the Capitol on Jan 6, and complaining
about the same mistreatment — and being heard.
*Rights Group [B'Tselem] Says Israel Uses Settler Violence Against
Palestinians to Take Over West Bank Land.*
The US deportation thugs have privatized inspections of their
deportation prisons. The inspection company bends over backwards
to give every prison a passing grade, no matter how bad it is.
That's what privatization is for — as a way to shrug off accountability.
Global heating takes Aswan in southern Egypt from dry to drier,
except when it causes a sudden downpour.
A rain of deadly scorpions happened also, but though 500 people were stung,
they were all saved with antivenin.
US citizens: call on the House of Representatives to pass
the Build Back Better act (relief and climate bill) now.
Employers are increasingly turning their workers' computers and homes
into a digital panopticon.
This article describes a museum's projection of the British home of 2050,
recognizes it as dystopian, and displays displeasure only rather mildly.
Some of these automated features could respect your freedom if they
are implemented in libre software and run on your own libre platforms.
If we want that, we had better start rejecting the user-subjugating
platforms now.
One suggestion: when you enter a house, ask whether there are
listening devices such as Alexa, or video insecurity cameras, and as
to unplug them. Even if you don't insist, at least people will learn
that what they are doing is problematical and some people don't like
it.
Russia used an antisatellite weapon against an old Russian satellite.
Such tests create space debris, which we don't have a way to clean up.
That is a grave, persistent, accumulating problem.
The ultimate danger of space debris is that a chain reaction of
collisions could make so much debris that it would destroy all
satellites, and we could never put up satellites (or spacecraft)
again. An accelerated version of this was shown in the movie Gravity.
I think that was unrealistically fast, but no one would dare build and
launch a spaceship if its collisional half life were as little as ten
years. Everything human would be excluded from space, except for the
hypersonic nuclear missiles that China and the US are testing. (They
don't need to stay in space for very long.)
The US tested an ASAT missile
and was rebuked for wantonly creating space debris.
Every so often I see a proposed system for cleaning up space debris, I
don't think any of them would scale to the amount of debris present in
Earth orbit in recent years.
(satire) *Park Ranger Slips Fat Fish To Bear
Before Gesturing Towards Littering Family.*
*Lukashenko is a
handy villain to mask the cruelty of Fortress Europe.*
I disagree with one subtle point: the EU's actions and Lukashenko's
actions are not parallel. Lukashenko actively lures migrants,
so he can use them as weapons; the EU simply wants to keep them out.
*On trial for saving lives:
the young refugee activist facing a Greek court.*
Americans who provided water and other humanitarian assistance to
migrants in the desert a few years ago were likewise charged with
aiding their entry.
*From Nicaragua to China,
reckless autocrats betray the promises of revolution.*
*There has been progress at Cop26,
but the planet’s fate is still in the balance.*
Many Afghans fear reprisals from Taliban or unofficial murderous
Islamist fanatics, and are hiding --
they don't know for how long.
Civil servants in the UK are going to court to insist on applying the
ministerial code seriously when ministers violate it and mistreat staff.
Cop26 may have made the climate for
coal mining too hot in Australia.
Tory undermining of the NHS has reached the point where patients wait in
ambulances outside emergency rooms because there is no space for them.
*India and China will “have to explain themselves to poor nations”
after watering down the Glasgow climate pact, warned the Cop26 president.*
In 2019, a US aircraft bombed a mixed group of PISSI soldiers and
their families (perhaps held captive by them).
Some officers tried to have this investigated, but the investigation
was quashed and the military never disclosed what had happened.
Based on the article, it seems that the ethical issues were
complicated, but covering this up was certainly wrong.
US citizens: call on Biden to cancel a substantial part of student
debt.
* Weak EU vehicle emissions targets could allow Europe’s biggest
carmakers to produce millions more petrol and diesel cars than
necessary up to 2030.*
*Al Jazeera bureau chief arrested in Sudan amid deadly anti-coup protests.*
*Māori tribe tells anti-Covid vaccine protesters to stop using its
haka.*
To rebuke them for being jerks would be entirely justified.
(As well as disease-spreading lunatics, which they always are.)
However, it is intolerable for anyone to have power over who can use
traditional music and dance. We should not allow that form of power
to advance.
Two million Americans have no running water, and the US water infrastructure
is decaying because the federal government has cut most of its support
since around 1980.
Water supply is contaminated in many areas; fracking is making more of them.
1980 is when President Reagan started redirecting America's income to
rich people and businesses, instead of what most Americans needed.
*Senate Urged to Reject Biden's "Poor Choice" for FDA Chief Over Ties to Big
Pharma.*
*Five Rich Nations Jeopardizing Future With Plans for Fossil Fuel Expansion:
Report.*
The list includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia,
Canada, and Norway. It should include China too, as China is now
rich and powerful.
*Ilhan Omar Unveils Resolution to Block 'Unconscionable' Saudi Arms Sale.*
The US should not participate in Salafi Arabia's war in Yemen, and
that includes providing materiel or support for it.
There are two kinds of resolution that can be used for this: one which
allows the president to veto it and one which does not.
The former kind is ineffective for this purpose.
Which kind of resolution has been filed?
US citizens: call on Congress to make the corrupter testify about his
involvement in the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
This is presuming there is no hope of prosecuting him for this based
on the testimony of others. Questioning him in Congress would require
giving him immunity for prosecution, and that would be unfortunate
if we could otherwise send him to prison.
Studies show: safety precautions and regulations are often very effective.
In a wide range of areas, they protect people from harm.
There are denialists who argue that every safety precaution is ultimately
worthless, because it will encourage so much reckless behavior as to
negate the benefit. The figures show they are wrong, wrong, wrong.
Their mistake is not to recognize that the precautions may encourage
some people to be somewhat more reckless, but that isn't a big enough
problem to outweigh the direct benefit of the precaution.
What does encourage recklessness is believing disinformation that
attacks safety measures.
So get vaccinated, and use your seat belt, your helmet, your condom,
and your mask!
* Documents released Friday reveal how in early 2020 the Trump
administration downplayed the deadly danger posed by the nascent
Covid-19 pandemic, silencing and sidelining top health officials who
tried to warn the public and destroying evidence of political
interference while issuing rosy declarations that the outbreak was
"totally under control" and would soon be over.*
This included gagging the CDC and altering its data reports.
Joseph Stiglitz: *Why the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell must go.*
*Texas schools resist Republican request for records on classroom books.*
Extinction Rebellion protesters blocked an event of the City of London.
The City of London is a small neighborhood of the city called London,
or would be if the word "neighborhood" fit an area with very few
residents but lots of offices of big banks and finance companies.
It has been given special legal status which enables those companies can
fully dominate it,
and one of the things those companies use their
local domain for is to keep investing in fossil fuels.
A US appeals court decided tentatively to suspend the vaccine mandate
for medium and large businesses until it decides the question.
This is unfortunate, but what is really unfortunate is that the US
government does not have the power to ensure that Americans protect
each other from a disease that can cause death, and can also cause
lasting medical problems and disabilities for those that don't die of
it.
(satire) *Distracted God Accidentally Puts Baby’s Soul In Envelope To
Utility Company.*
(satire) *Teen's Eyes Begin Glowing Red While Reciting Forbidden
Knowledge From Book On Critical Race Theory.*
Several countries have started Beyond Oil and Gas, a campaign to put an end
to fossil fuels.
Grandiose plans to plant millions of trees to cite as "carbon offsets"
will have trouble finding enough land to put them on.
Not just any land will support a forest.
It supports my conclusion that we must reject "offsets"
and instead really reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
*Flint water crisis costs Michigan $600 million — preventing it would have cost $80/day.*
The people who chose the plan that inflicted lead poisoning
in Flint will not have to pay the damages.
*Latvia bans unvaccinated lawmakers from voting [and discussions].*
*Outrage as AstraZeneca Ditches Pledge Not to Profit From Publicly
Funded Vaccine.*
Oxford should have published everything and invited companies to make
its vaccine. It probably has an excuse for not doing that, but we should
call in question the validity of that excuse.
Perhaps we should ask every company that makes a pledge
to sign a contract so that it will have to pay enormous damages
if it violates the pledge.
Hong Kong seems to be kicking out many selected foreign journalists,
I suppose to make them all start censoring themselves.
* Where now? Governments have agreed to a weak climate deal which gets us a smidgen closer to holding temperatures to a rise of 1.5C. But as
regards all the most important pledges to phase out coal, reduce
subsidies and protect forests, Glasgow failed.*
I think the progress in this agreement is more than what those words
suggest. But it is still lacking the concrete, clear and firm
commitments to immediate action that we really need.
Here is a less emotional resume of the agreement and its good and bad
points.
To protect right whales, Maine lobster fishers need to switch to
self-lifting lobster pots that don't need a rope and a buoy. But they
are expensive.
The government should fund this equipment.
LA teenagers are charged with making false accusations that sent thugs
to raid one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter.
Fanatical hate often leads people to become dishonest
and cruel in a more direct sense.
(satire) *Climate Summit Sets Ambitious Goal To Phase Out Fossil Fuels
By Time Earth Runs Out Of Them.*
Glasgow University published a paper which criticized Israeli
policies, then published criticism calling it "antisemitic." A
petition signed by hundreds of scholars convinced the university to
retract that criticism.
US citizens: call on your senators to pass the Build Back Better (relief) bill.
Australia's planet-roaster government chose a company that advises
fossil fuel interests to develop a "plan" for how to reduce
Australia's greenhouse emissions. The plan it came up with was,
"Don't bother trying until 2040, then buy so-called 'offsets' so we
won't really have to do any of the work."
Morrisson has been working for fossil fuel interests all along, and
lying to protect them.
I speculate he will get a reward based on how long he can delay any
effort to avoid disaster.
*Steve Bannon indicted for refusal to comply with Capitol attack subpoena.*
I think that Bannon could spin this out for months before being
convicted. But this may loosen some other tongues.
The ironic relationship between the violent dispossession of Māori in
New Zealand in the 1880s and the violent dispossession of Irish in
Ireland in 1649.
* Birds in the Amazon are becoming smaller but growing longer wings, a
study has found, with scientists saying global heating is the most
likely explanation.*
I am disappointed in the scientist who legitimized unscientific
thinking about evolution by referring to it as "nature's genius."
Such language panders to people who want to misunderstand evolution in
religious terms.
Evolution does not operate via creativity, planning, or consciousness.
It is the result of randomness systematically skewed by actual conditions.
*Transform approach to Amazon [forest] or it will not survive, warns major
report.*
The problem is that the loggers, miners and soy farmers are eager to
eliminate the forest. Eventually their farms will die because they
depended on the rain historically caused by the forest,
but by then it will be too late.
*The US-China climate agreement is imperfect — but reason to hope.*
*Trump defended rioters who threatened to ‘hang Mike Pence’, audio
reveals.*
He did this as an embellishment to hammering on the lie
that the 2020 election was rigged. Republicans tried, of course,
as they do every year,
but they did not succeed.
A campaign calls for a postumous pardon for civil rights activist
Homer Plessy, who was convicted of riding in a whites-only railroad
car.
His loss in the Supreme Court legitimized the Jim Crow segregation laws.
Flying desperate Syrians to Belarus so they can try to get into
Poland is a very profitable business for Belarus.
Belarus charges each Syrian 3500 dollars for this service.
Evidently those who accept the deal are not broke.
Is there any sort of business you can start with $3500 in Syria?
Imprisoned Turkish party leader Selahattin Demirtaş's wife has been sentenced
to 30 months in prison for a clerical error on a medical form.
This demonstrates the full extent of dictator Erdoğan's contempt for
human rights. When he wants to put you in prison, no excuse is too
absurd.
Shipping companies are starting to respond to pressure to cut their greenhouse
gas emissions, but actual changes beyond minor efficiency improvements have
not yet started.
Representatives of environmentalist groups walked out of the Cop26 conference
to protest its failure to adopt policies that can achieve its mission.
The drought in southern Madagascar has made it impossible to grow food.
People eat things with no food value just to fill their stomachs.
If this is indeed the result of global heating, it will get worse and
worse — just as it will in many other parts of the world, if we
don't stop the heating.
*Chinese agents operating abroad to get Uyghur [exiles] deported [to
China], ICC told.*
* Organizers of Glasgow [climate defense] march claim [thugs] risked
"chaos" by failing to adhere to pre-agreed arrangements.*
*Oceanographer Sylvia Earle calls for industrial fishing ban on high
seas.* The article explains that this refers to international waters, which
would be 200 miles away from any land. So this would not put an end
to most fishing.
*Walmart Delivery Workers Say New Pay Model Steals Their Tips.*
A substantial fraction of nitrogenous fertilizer is converted into
NO2, a powerful greenhouse gas. Making it releases methane. We need
to use much less fertilizer.
Another fraction of the fertilizer runs off into lakes and seas, where
it creates toxic blooms and dead zones.
Biden is about to hold an auction of oil leases for sea bottom in the Gulf of Mexico. Climate defenders urge him to cancel the auction.
We used to condemn Hitler and Nazis, but now that's considered
insufficient. Imitating Hitler as mockery is now treated as a
violation of taboo, reason for someone to be shunned.
This reminds me of the 1942 US propaganda movie, To Be Or Not To Be,
which features a fictional Polish Hitler-impersonator. He is such a
capable impersonator that he can fool even Germans, which proves
useful for fighting them — in a comedy, at least.
Director Ernst Lubitsch was a Jew born in Germany, and he must have
thought of Hitler as the worst of enemies. But he saw no wrong in
presenting a Hitler-impersonator, if that would help to defeat Hitler.
Putin is planning to shut down the organization Memorial, which documents
repression of dissidents in the Soviet Union.
A carbon capture and storage project was supposed to capture and store
80% of the CO2 output of a large industrial facility, but only handled 40%. It was a failure.
The article criticizes the project for not capturing the CO2 produced
elsewhere by burning the gas prepared by this facility. That is true,
but it's not a failure. Obviously, the power plants that burn it
would need their own capture and storage systems. We could build
those — but maybe electric power storage would be cheaper.
Jens Galschiot made a sculpture to represent the massacre at Tien An
Men, and lent it to the University of Hong Kong. That university is
now compelled to try to get rid of it. Galschiot wants to go and
bring it home, but he is afraid he will be jailed if he does.
Australia's planet-roaster prime minister, Morrison, is now getting
blasted for all the lies. He denies telling the lies, but that fails
to convince his critics.
The climate in Greece has changed drastically; old weather patterns are
gone. The big fires destroyed the entire ecosystem of northern Evia
(formerly Euboia).
Balochistan is a part of Pakistan inhabited largely by a minority
ethnic/linguistic group. It has a separatist movement, and faces
repression from the Pakistani government. The repression forces
disappear people, who show up many years later — perhaps alive, perhaps dead.
Forest rangers in southern California want to remove bushes and some
smaller trees to reduce future wildfires.
Some local people demand to save every tree, but that can't be done
except by reversing global heating.
Free Assange Rally on Monday, November 22 at 4pm in Boston.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the billionaires' tax
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!.
The International Commission of Jurists concludes that two UN treaties
require countries to cooperate with removing the patent obstacles
to making vaccines.
These treaties have been ratified by around 170 countries. The US is
not one of them, but that's not a problem since the US is already in
favor of doing this.
The NIH is disputing with Moderna the rights to the patents that
Moderna has applied for. If it wins the inclusion of its scientists among the inventors,
it will get the power to license manufacture of vaccines.
The death rate from Covid-19 is 3 times as much in US counties that
voted 60% for the wrecker as in counties that voted 60% for Biden.
*More Than Halfway Through COP26, World Leaders Accused of Delivering
Empty Promises on a Sinking Ship.*
The US wants to require all new cars to have a system to determine whether
the driver is drunk.
This threatens to collect more data about all drivers.
I will not object to that system if the only information it reports,
ever, is either "Driver is drunk" or "driver may not be drunk."
That data should not be stored anywhere, only used immediately to decide
whether the car can start.
*"This Must Not Happen": If Unhalted, Permian Basin Fracking Will Unleash 40 Billion Tons of CO2 by 2050.*
This would be "game over for the climate."
HSBC, working with other big banks, has been lobbying secretly to
reduce the greenhouse reduction commitment that banks are negotiating.
They all have pledged to reach net-zero by 2050, but that is only lip service.
*If all the announced net-zero commitments are implemented, the global
temperature would rise 1.8°C by 2100, but this is only IF these targets are fully implemented, and it's a big IF.*
(satire) *Bounty CEO Rebrands Business As Metaverse Of Napkins.*
*Flint water crisis victims to receive $626m settlement.*
For Democrats to win next year, they need to win back voters that were hit
by increasing poverty.
This is one reason why passing the infrastructure bill was important.
However, passing the aid bill (Build Back Better) is also important.
The progressives who insisted on the deal to pass both bills
were trying to do a larger part of what the Democratic Party needs.
A bill in Congress would require web sites to give users an alternative
to letting opaque algorithms choose what they see.
Specifically, the sites would have to warn users about basing feeds
or search results on any personal data other than what they submitted
specifically to state preferences.
I agree that this would be a step forward — but, when it comes to
searching, I want to make sure the site does not know who I am.
Paleontoligical study of previous mass extinctions suggests that our
rapid CO2 production could rush past a global tipping point, and
unleash catastrophic global climate oscillations in this century.
Activists outside of Cop26 projected serious slogans such as "leave
methane in the ground" and "end fracking now" on the side of the
building where discussions are happening.
A company hired by the event to project on the sides of buildings
decided to drown that out by covering the protest with other slogans.
The result was to amplify the protest.
Thai protesters called for reducing the power of the monarch. Now the
constitutional court ruled that such protesters count as a rebellion.
Here's an example where indigenous people in modern British Columbia
carefully made their salmon fishing sustainable over a period of 1,000
years.
*San Francisco’s progressive district attorney faces recall election.*
Inflation tends to be good for poor people, especially those with
debts and those who have to work for a living.
It reduces the value of the debts, and it goes with shortage of
labor, which means you can get a raise.
Thus, the media alarm about inflation may be calculated to serve the
interests of the creditor class.
The Congressional Budget Office proposes three ways to cut $100
billion per year from the military budget.
Instead of replacing fossil-fuel automobiles with electric
automobiles, it might be better to aim to put an end to use of
automobiles.
I don't think other transport will entirely replace automobiles.
I wish I could use a bicycle, but (1) I don't know how to ride one and
(2) I'd be scared to ride one in a place where cars go. Can we come up
with a way to make bicycles safer, and avoid the need for honed skill
to use one?
A building in LA, with a supermarket in it, demands customers load a
particular app to pay for parking in the parking lot, and accept
pervasive surveillance.
They also have the option of entering their license plate numbers in a kiosk.
That is an injustice, too.
*Frontline workers cannot expect to remain unvaccinated in a pandemic
and to keep working with vulnerable people.*
The first-level federal court overturned the Texas rule that school districts
cannot require masks.
Republican officials will appeal this ruling, so I expect it will be months
before there is a final result.
(satire) *Climate Scientists Warn That Fish Will Be Under Even More
Water By 2065.*
*Campaigners Rip New COP26 Draft as a "Polite Request" for Climate
Action Amid Existential Crisis.*
Iran's conditions for resuming the non-nuclear deal:
The US must commit to remaining in the deal, and it must ease sanctions
in a way that has significant effect. Also, European countries must not
allow US sanctions laws to block them from trading with Iran.
These demands seem acceptable to me. It seems absurd for the US to have
the power to tell other countries whether they can trade with Iran or not.
*Cop26 targets too weak to stop disaster, say Paris agreement architects.*
* Monitoring of workers and setting performance targets through
algorithms is damaging [UK]
employees' mental health and needs to
be controlled by new legislation.*
I suppose it harms workers in the US, too, but the report is about the UK.
How America Got (And Lost)
Universal Child Care.
SARS-CoV-2 has spread to
deer in Iowa and is causing an epidemic
among them.
In principle, humans could catch it from deer. This could make it
hard to eradicate the disease, but humans will not have many
opportunities to catch it from deer. However, we don't know what other
kinds of animals may harbor it.
Tuvalu is looking for a way to retain its status as a country,
and its maritime zones of exclusive commerce, if its land
is inundated.
*During Brazil's Dictatorship,
Companies Helped Suppress Democracy.*
Famous US and European companies conspired to crush union organizers
by asking the national thugs to arrest them and torture them.
There is a danger that they will prop up Bolsonaro so they can do it
again.
Canada agreed to pay rent to indigenous groups for mining and logging
on land that they ceded, but only paid them a pittance.
Now it will
have to pay them billions.
This is fair, and I hope the indigenous peoples manage it so as to
make a lasting improvement in their lives.
However, it might have the ironic effect of convincing them to lobby
for mining and logging. ;-{.
Home renters in Catalonia are
organizing to fight evictions.
Democrats in Congress propose to compensate the black soldiers in
World War II (actually their descendents) for
dening them the education benenfits offered to white soldiers.
One cause of inflation in the US today is that there is
too little competition to hold prices down.
We need to break up the enormous companies that four decades of
unrestrained merger have produced.
I suggest a way to do this via
taxes.
Ethiopia is arresting thousands of people of Tigrayan origin, even
foreign visitors, on suspicion that they will
support advancing Tigrayan armies.
*Belarus threatens to cut gas deliveries to EU if sanctioned over
border crisis.*
As long as the EU is dependent on gas from Russia and Belarus, they have the
advantage all the time. This is an important secondary reason for the EU
to build renewable generation capacity at double time. Fortunately
that's exactly what the EU needs to do anyway.
Obama hardly tried to curb global heating
when he was president, yet now he is publicly pressing for more climate defense.
What should we say about this incongruous situation?
If our goal is to encourage climate defense, we should criticize his
past failure as president, while endorsing his valid points (those
which are valid) of today.
To treat his past failure as more important than the future, as the
article does, is not constructive.
Campaigning to close the oil wells that in
Los Angeles county that are making local residents badly sick.
Yanis Varoufakis: *
Cop26 is doomed, and the hollow promise of "net zero" is to blame.*
US citizens: call on the Senate not to vote on the NDAA until we have
passed Build Back Better.
US citizens: call on Congress to Pass the Polluters Pay Climate Fund
Act.
US citizens: call on the Canadian government stop subsidizing the
forest biomass industry —
in other words, paying to cut down forests and burn them.
US citizens: call on Congress to remove insurrectionists, as the
constitution requires.
*The cow in the room: why is no one talking about farming at Cop26?*
It is hard for me to comment on issues relating to sustainable
farming, because I don't have a basis to judge whether proposed
methods have a plausible chance of being more sustainable. I know
about many of the worst problems — pesticides, fertilizer, water
demand, and farming crops to feed animals — but when people propose
solutions, I can't tell the rational solutions ones from the newage.
One piece of foolishness can be seen in the article when people
criticize the menus because "60% of dishes include meat or dairy." I
am not impressed by people who equate buttered toast with a steak.
A Kenyan woman was murdered in 2012. Now there is an indication
that the murderer was a British soldier sent there for training.
I am disappointed that the article raises the question of whether
she was a part-time prostitute — as if that were pertinent.
Condemnation of prostitutes is an example of the conservative
idea of moral values,
which are based on obedience to superiors, loyalty to the group,
and cleanness, and allow those to override fairness and justice.
*Youngkin played the race card in Virginia, no Trump card needed.*
A discussion of politics in Hungary and an interview with Peter Márki-Zay,
the candidate of the united opposition.
I do not admire anyone for being conservative, nor for being Catholic
(though that's ok if perse is not also conservative). I disapprove
strongly of having seven children, which is harmful to civilization's
future;
people should use birth control to avoid overpopulating.
However, if Márki-Zay brings Hungary back to democracy, that will outweigh
my disapproval of the specifics.
Daniel Ellsberg and Norman Solomon: ICBMs are especially likely to
cause an accidental nuclear war — the US would be safer after
eliminating its land-based ICBMs
even if Russia does not eliminate its own.
The US would still have bombers and submarine-launched missiles.
In the 1970s, the region of Sacramento, California, had an average of
7 days of "fire weather" per year. Last year it was 22; this year it
was 25.
Distributed Denial of Secrets posted a large collection of photos that
two US surveillance departments leaked through total carelessness.
They show us how invasive state surveillance has become in "free"
countries.
Trying to restrict the use of this surveillance data will tend to be
ineffective. After all, there is already a law against lying in court
testimony, but that doesn't make thugs stop doing it.
The US has a history of persecuting people by calling them "terrorists",
so limiting the use of the surveillance to "fighting terrorism"
won't protect us.
That is why I advocate prohibiting the installation or operation of
dangerous surveillance systems that surveil people in general.
*Cop26 sets course for disastrous heating of more than 2.4C, says key report.*
*There’s a nearly 1C difference between
countries’ 2030 commitments and their 2050 targets.*
Is it horrifying for a dead body to be dissected publicly?
It must be gruesome, but if that happens to the corpse of someone
you knew, is it a reason to take offense?
I don't see that it is. The dissection can't harm the person who died,
or per memory.
If my corpse is someday publicly dissected, I think that will not
be a reason for to take offense on my behalf. Instead, please support
what I have done with my life — the Free Software Movement.
China has suffered big damage from extreme rainfall.
Will this convince China's
rulers to stop making it worse by building coal-burning generators?
President Piñera of Chile has been
impeached over using his power to benefit his family financiailly.
The facts were disclosed by
The Pandora Papers.
I am not surprised he would do this. He generally does what's good for the rich, and that includes his family.
*[Bogus Johnson] tests the limits of shamelessness,
using the dignity of his cabinet as a probe.*
Mexico has accused an unidentified "businessman"
for using the Pegasus spyware to snoop on a journalist.
A man that punched Capitol policemen
during the Jan 6 insurrection has fled to Belarus for safety
If we can only convince Republican leaders to go to Belarus, the US might
be safer.
*If Build Back Better Fails, AOC Warns,
"We May Have Just Locked in US Emissions."*
Proposing a way that
capitialism could end nonviolently.
To eliminate capitalism entirely would mean that excellent specialty
products and services would disappear — including good restaurants
and delicious food products. I love them, and I want them to be there
to buy! What's harmful is when busineses are big enough to shape
society for their ends. Can we get rid of big-time capitalism and
keep the capitalism for things that are not necessitities of life?
Calling on the Edelman advertising agency to
drop fossil fuel companies as clients.
Major progressive groups warn that Republicans threaten to
overthrow US democracy in 2022 or 2024
Climate defense rallies of
last weekend, in photos.
*Progressives to Biden:
If You Want to Be Popular, Take On Corporate Greed.*
*Survivors of 1965 Indonesia massacres urge UK to apologize.*
And the US, of course.
NFT-boosters perversely acknowledge that the buyers are buying only the
opportunity to boast how much they spent. It is conspicuous consumption
publicly stripped of any possible other good.
Therapists and consultants say that they help their clients by
charging them a lot of money, because that influences them to respect
the service more. By saying this, they are not being irrational
themselves, but they are showing disrespect for their clients by
presuming they judge foolishly.
The NFT boosters that sneer at "right-clicker mentality" take a further
step into absurdity: they claim that the people they manipulate are
right to think in that perverse way.
The FTC has power to restrict some of the bad things Facebook does to
zuckers.
I don't think that forbidding Facebook to collect "data on a user's
race, sexual orientation, gender, or national origin" would make
Facebook safe for its useds. Facebook can deduce those things from
what a person likes, or chooses to look at — not with 100% accuracy,
but accurately enough to target people profitably.
PEN reports on Republicans' laws (and bills) to impose censorship on
education.
Governments' estimates of their greenhouse gas emissions omit 8 to 13
billions of tons per year. That is a substantial fraction of the total
anthropic emissions.
Extreme pessimism about our future is as harmful as blind optimism.
The article errs in equating Roger Hallam's warning with fatalistic
pessimism. Extinction Rebellion is the opposite of fatalism. His
warning of what the future will be like if you don't try to change it
is a call to action, and it has inspired thousands — or perhaps
millions — into the struggle.
* Citizens are alarmed by the climate crisis, but most believe they are
already doing more to preserve the planet than anyone else, including
their government, and few are willing to make significant lifestyle
changes, an international survey has found.*
The comparatively painless way for millions of people to change a harmful habit
is to get together and do it at the level of society as a whole. To achieve
the same results by individual sacrifices is a big pain.
28 of the 100 US senators (and their families) own substantial holdings
of fossil fuel stocks.
(satire) *Virginians Who Watched Schools Taken Over By Sharia Law
Refuse To Make Same Mistake With Critical Race Theory.*
A few rich "philanthropists" pledged to spend a around $25 million
a year to help Kalamazoo (however they see fit), in exchange for
cancellation of a planned tax increase.
Now the city is addicted to their continuing "donations"
and has sold control of its future.
Although Democrats have kept the paid birth leave benefit alive,
the lowest-paid workers will now be specially excluded.
Taiwan shows that a free country can stamp out Covid-19 completely.
If the world maintained this discipline, it could get rid of Covid-19 forever,
and reopen in safety.
The Los Angeles Thug Department is accused of outsourcing racial
profiling to algorithms
— for the second time.
I wish I knew to what extent the thug department controls the
algorithms in use, but I can't tell that from the article.
Can anyone find out?
*I have lived under corrupt regimes — the cynicism stalking Britain
is all too familiar.*
*Tuvalu minister to address Cop26 knee deep in seawater to highlight
climate crisis.*
Sergei Savelyev fled to France and revealed copies of torture videos
made in the Saratov prison hospital.
These videos were not from always-on "security" cameras. They
specifically recorded acts of torture of prisoners for the delectation
of prison officers.
Russia is trying to imprison Savelyev for this leak. That response is
disgusting and shameful. What's even more shameful for me as an
American is that the US government is doing the same thing to Julian
Assange for a similar "crime".
Manchin and Sinema have
agreed to let Medicare negotiate bulk purchases of some drugs.
This will be a signal victory if it gets passed into law, even though
it is limited to only some drugs and some patients (those covered by
Medicare), because it will break through the barrier that has held for
50 years. Extending the exception policy should be easier than
creating it.
In more civilized countries, the national medical system provides all
prescription drugs to patients. Italy's system, for example,
distributes insulin gratis to all diabetics that need it.
How China imposes
total repression on everything that Uyghurs do.
*1bn people will suffer
extreme heat at just 2C heating, say scientists.*
In New Zealand, a few thousand anti-vaxxers mounted a protest outside
Parliament,
advocating a twisted mishmash of various right-wing lunacies.
People have a right to rally nonviolently for any views, including
these. But if they violate (or threaten to violate) measures to stop
the spread of Covid-19, they should be subject to immediate
vaccination as a public safety measure.
Singapore will charge for treatment for Covid-19 infection of people
who are
unvaccinated by choice.
This is fair, and will convince many to get vaccinated and thus be safer.
Paternity leave
helps couples stay together.
Portugal's new law gives new rights to remote workers, including the
penaties to the employer for
contacting workers outside of their
working day.
*Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Have Larger Presence at COP26 Than Any Single
Country.*
It totals over 500 people.
Each of them was authorized by some country or other entity. Thus,
Brazil's contingent of 479 people includes some of those 500 fossil
fuel lobbyists.
The demand for copper is increasing and this means more mining.
The mines
often pollute water supplies, and they don't take responsibility for cleaning
up mining or pollution.
US mining law is not effective at making those who profited from the
mine pay for cleaning up its pollution later. The corporation is
likely to go bankrupt as soon as the mine stops producing. I think it
would be more effective put an environmental tax on operating a mine,
which will cover what the government is likely to have to pay to clean
it up later.
US citizens: call on the Senate to end the filibuster.
US citizens: call on the Senate to end the filibuster.
It is important to keep up the pressure on this point.
*Cop26 leaders blame individuals,
while supporting a far more destructive system.*
*hellip; we can return to the question of individual consumption and
ask if there are ways of making our personal choices as a way of
developing =– rather than distracting from -– systemic change.*
(satire) *Amazon Assures Customers That Alexas
Far Too Busy Devising Their Own Plans To Listen In On Private Conversations.*
*When Are We Going to Talk About the Outrageous Cost of
NOT Passing the Build Back Better Act?*
Analyzing how US troops
mistook a family for a PIS bomber and then treated it as unquestioable truth.
It would not be just, or useful, to criminalize this mistake, but it
is important to change the system to prevent future similar mistakes.
*If Democrats return to [so-called] centrism,
they are doomed to lose against Trump.*
"Centrists" is the propaganda word that plutocratists use to pretend
that the political center of the US is where they are, just as the
communists called themselves "Bolshevik" ("on the big side") to
pretend that they represented the majority of socialists. Let's
not spread that falsehood. According to an opinion polls, an overwhelming
majority of Americans support the main political positions of
progressives Democrats. The proper term for the "centrists" is
"plutocratist."
Rssearch is trying to use snoop phone sensors to measure a person's mental state.
If this ever works, it will enable manipulation/marketing companies
to determine which ads work for each person specific who sees them,
and to brainwash people ad lib.
In the "counter climate summit", activists will present climate defense proposals that COP26 is not seriously considering.
*Australia's Largest University Stole $8.6 Million From Workers' Wages.*
Cities use traffic stops to brutally squeeze money out of people that
can barely afford it.
Ultimately, plutocracy is to blame. The rich have escaped most taxation,
so cities have to gouge the poor.
*US citizens v FBI: Will the government
face charges for illegal surveillance?*
Specifically, snooping on people for being Muslims rather that based on
any evidence of criminal activity.
Psychiatry is opening to the idea of psychedelics as treatments.
Sometimes a single dose is enough to treat PTSD.
US citizens: call on AT&T to stop funding the right-wing OAN network.
*Revealed: how LAPD targeted Nipsey Hussle’s street corner and store,*
apparently because he was black and didn't "know his place."
If the thugs really wanted to reduce crime, they would have encouraged
his efforts to build up honest small business in a depressed area.
The main reason to give workers paid sick-leave is so they don't get
worn down by a hard life. But if that's not enough to convince you,
keep in mind that sick leave for contagious diseases helps protect
everyone from catching a disease.
*Married lesbian couple launch discrimination action against [UK
National Health System].*
It is wrong to discriminate in offering fertility assistance of any
kind. Everyone who applies should get the same answer: "Fertility
services suspended until Earth's human population falls below one
billion. In the mean time, adopt a child instead."
Climate mayhem has already killed more Americans than terrorism.
And it's going to keep killing increasing numbers of Americans.
The US should shift to a war on greenhouse gas emissions.
The first step is to stop using an emotionally neutral term such as
"climate change" to describe the threat.
*'I get scared': the young activists sounding the alarm from climate
tipping points.*
What they are warning about is not specific tipping points. We
usually don't know exactly where those are located. Rather, it is
the fact that systems are starting to tip.
*Julian Assange and fiancee claim they are being blocked from marrying.*
Robert Reich: The US rich have got much richer because their political
clout enabled them to cut their taxes. They have mostly neutralized the
wealth taxes that the US adopted around 1900.
We can make them function again, if we are determined.
New York City should deal with anti-vaxx thugs by getting stricter.
I suggest asking the public to send in photos of thugs who are
unmasked in public — and fine the thugs $100 for each occasion they
are proved to have been maskless. Half of that could be a reward for
whoever took the photo.
Pfizer and Moderna claim that non-rich countries have no ability to
manufacture mRNA vaccines — but that is false.
Of course, it would be easy to put this to the test. Tell them what
they need to know, and we will soon see whether they succeed in making
the vaccine.
The article's authors have fallen into the fundamental confusion
spread by the term "intellectual property". If you use that
pseudo-concept, what you say about patents will be false because lots
of things that describe various other laws will be mixed into the
mishmash.
Dave Eggers warns that there will be a campaign to put cameras in
every home. The stated purpose will be to stamp out domestic violence.
When Americans get out of jail, many of them owe more than $10,000 to
the court, an amount than a poor person in America can't pay.
Then there is the debt for probation, owed to the private company that
runs probation and charges the not-quite-ex-con a lot of money.
It should be forbidden to privatize any aspect of prisons, courts, or
the justice system.
I was disappointed that this campaign uses an app. It is almost
surely nonfree. Can someone find out if it is possible to deal with
the campaign by phone call?
It is not unusual for a thug to shoot and kill a black man who is
driving a car, then claim, falsely, that the
car was a deadly weapon
and the victim had threatened the thug's life with it.
Sometimes the thug jumps in front of the car, notices that the car is
heading straight at him, and then shoots and kills the driver. How
easy it is to turn any driver into a deadly threat that you simply
must shoot.
This explains why it is very helpful to
adopt a policy that thugs
should not stop a car for a minor traffic violation.
The article linked to at the start of this note displays symbolic
bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing
bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry,
and normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I
make exceptions for some articles which give important information
about racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of
the exceptions.
Proposing the legal right to decide
who is allowed to monitor your brain.
Australia spends
$500 million per year holding refugees prisoner on Nauru.
Millions for cruelty, but not one cent for kindness.
There were large rallies for
climate defense on Saturday in many
cities around the world,
Progressives made a mistake, then suffered a defeat, regarding
the
Build Back Better (relief and climate) bill.
The mistake was to allow a vote on the infrastructure bill before the
relief and climate bill had been signed into law. I can't understand
why they did this, since they had insisted vehemently that it would
risk allowing plutocratists to gut or kill the relief and clinate
bill.
Next thing you know, the plutocratists starting doing just that.
Wall Street took the idea of
"natural capital" literally:
the New York Stock Exchange now offers to list a special type of corporation which represents the
benefits that flow from some natural ecosystem, as a private good.
Blackrock is not altruistic. If it buys land, it will not dedicate
that land to a good purpose. At least, not once there is something
more profitable to do with it.
I suspect this will promote the privatization of state lands so that their "ecosystem services" can be owned by big companies. Next thing you know, the lands might be bought up by a "private equity" asset stripper that will remove
the water, the vegetation, or whatever is profitable to sell off.
Meanwhile, they will resell the land minus its "ecosystem services"
for other uses. If you live in a house on that land, you may find
that the previous owner -- Blackrock? -- signed away your right to
object to the asset stripping or whatever else the owner of the
"natural capital" decides to do there. That's what happens if someone
else owns oil or fracking rights under your house.
A UK official concerned with
bigotry among cops proposes to monitor
their digital communications,
I have mixed opinions about this proposal.
There are situations in which it is acceptable for the state to open a
person's letters, but I think they call for a court order based on
specific reasons to open that person?'s letters.
On the one hand, it is legitimate to monitor cops systematically in
ways that would be unjust to apply to people in general. It is very
important to fire cops that engage in bigotry, because they are likely
to be thugs.
On the other hand, doing this to cops might encourage the state to do
it to others.
Criticizing Biden's choice for "drug czar"
Biden's choice for "drug czar"
-- he does not lean towards
harm reduction.
Pakistan's
biometric national ID database illustrates how such databases
are dangerous.
An overeager algorithm can cancel the citizenship of multiple generations.
The system also serves purposes of repression and bigotry.
The US must take
strong enough measures to prevent a coup by the
wrecker in 2024.
I love the Churchill quote that fits the wrecker's feigning
supporters: "Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, it
will eat him last."
The US and Canada, but not Japan, South Korea, or China, pledged to
stop
subsidizing foreign fossil fuel projects next year.
*Boston Free Assange Rally Calling on
Merrick Garland to Stop Criminalization of Journalism*
*
Threadbare US Social Safety Net: The War on Science, Medicine, and
Equality for All.*
* Where are Biden's trips to West Virginia and Arizona to rally support
for his legislation? Where are the fireside chats with the American
people? Where are Biden's attempts to corral votes among the Republican
Senators on
highly popular issues including paid family leave, lower
drug prices and a clean-energy future?*
*University of Florida reverses decision, will allow professors to
testify as
paid experts in voting rights case.*
If Big Tech companies such as Apple control cars, they will design them
to collect data on
where each person goes and how each driver drives.
But it's not just them.
We know that Tesla cars have told Tesla where
people go in them
and there is no reason to think any other company
is less of a snoop.
*To limit global warming to 1.5°C, the *
U.S. must ultimately stop
building new export terminals and pipelines that prop up this dangerous
fossil fuel worldwide.
* But Biden plans to continue them.
*The Fossil Free Finance Act would
stop major banks and other important
financial institutions from funding fossil fuel projects.*
*It's the Democratic Party's job, and Biden's job in particular, to beat
a highly
unpopular lobby that has poisoned the planet, not to surrender
to it.*
Big Pharma and Big Insurance spent spent $171 million, January through
September,
on lobbying against giving more Americans adequate medical
care.
*Catapult Industry Won't Survive Another Year Without
Medieval War Breaking Out.*
Shareholder resolutions call for
Pfizer and Moderna to teach other
factories how to make RNA vaccines.
Extinction Rebellion: *
Agreed at COP26 is an inadequate agreement that
allows coal to continue for nearly 20 more years. But that's
excluding major nations who refuse to sign at all.*
*Madagascar is
experiencing famine due to global heating.*
The US demand that North Korea discard its nuclear weapons is a futile
approach.
The US should aim for a lesser goal that is achievable.*
Transparency over emissions
remains a sticking point at Cop26.
*
*Airlines keep
losing and damaging wheelchairs at an alarming rate.*
The effective way to make your
clothing purchases sustainable
is to buy a lot less.*
*Bitcoin, Ethereum
Mining Threatens Paris Climate Agreement:
Swedish
Financial Regulator.*
I think this position is valid. To save the world, we need to
decrease the use of fossil fuel; merely increasing use of renewable
energy won't do the job.
As a means of anonymous purchasing, these cryptocurrencies have
several drawbacks. They are not a real solution.
GNU Taler
can be a real solution.
La Paz is suffering from high levels of UV radiation.
levels of UV radiation.
It may be caused by global heating; if so, it is likely happen more
often in coming decades.
US officials have still not found the parents of
270 children that the
bully's officials separated from their parents.
The effort to reunite these families continues, hampered by the
failure to keep records. The bully's border thugs were largely
motivated by cruelty and hatred, and I suspect that they deliberately
acted to prevent ever reuniting these families.
I think these children were too young, at that time, to know things
such as their parents full names and where they lived.
*ExxonMobil and Chevron are the world's most obstructive
organisations when it comes to governments setting climate policies,
according to research into the
‟prolific and highly sophisticated”*
lobbying ploys used by the fossil fuel industry.*
Toyota is also high up on the list.
*New report
shows that 10 Facebook pages are responsible for 69% of climate
denial posts.*
Right-wing extremist Rep. Marjorie Greene owes
$48,000 in fines for
going to the House of Representatives without a mask.
This demonstrates that this punishment is insufficient to achieve
its goal. Wearing a mask is a measure to protect the lives and health
of all the members of the House, and their staff. Those who refuse
to wear a mask should not be allowed in, no matter who they are.
US citizens: tell Kaiser Permanente to give its workers a raise,
not a pay cut. That company is making big profits and can afford a raise.
US citizens: call on the Senate to remove Senator Joe Manchin as
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
US citizens: state your support for the Social Security 2100 Act
(the link gives details).
(satire) *Despondent Congressman Gerrymanders Self Into Own Isolated District.*
(satire) *Biden Social Spending Bill Whittled Down To $10 Billion
Check To Joe Manchin.*
*Major U.S. insurers continue to underwrite "the reckless expansion of oil and gas
infrastructure."*
The UK is deporting people to Jamaica who grew up in the UK
and have no contacts in Jamaica.
It's wrong when the US does this,
and wrong for other countries too.
Italy seems to have adopted a law that bans advertisements on the street
that "perpetuate gender stereotypes".
That is extremely broad censorship, since an ad need not disparage
or insult anyone to be banned. It is enough for it to show men and/or
women behaving in a customary way. Showing a party where women wear
dresses and men wear suits would be forbidden. Any scene in which
people are acting in accord with usual Italian sex roles is forbidden.
Advertising a romcom, or a James Bond movie, is almost impossible.
Macron’s ex-bodyguard got a light sentence (no prison time) for
attacking protesters.
Bogus Johnson will avoid the issue of the gift holiday he got from a
rich Tory by not officially declaring it.
A summary of what is known about the Ethiopia-Tigray war.
Some questions that occur to me:
Thugs in the Oklahoma City jail tortured prisoners by making them stand
for hours, as well as other methods.
Playing the baby shark song probably won't cause the same physical
pain and damage that standing for hours can cause. But if they play
it too loud, it could damage the victim's hearing.
Arguing that charging for parking benefits a city in many ways,
because the space near the curb gets made available for better uses
and people use cars less.
To make this truly beneficial, the city has to have copious mass
transit. Buses must be frequent enough that the precise schedule is
of no importance.
Many American women can't work because they can't find, or can't
afford, childcare.
One could argue that if a parent's can't find work that pays for the
cost of childcare, it's more efficient for the parent to stay home and
take care of per own children. Yes, indeed — provided we have a
welfare system that gives per an income to support the family.
Democrats urged Biden to push for a nuclear weapons limitation with
China.
Google seeks to run servers for the US military.
Governments must never entrust the operation of their servers to an
outside entity, because the state must have control of its computing.
*How These Ultrawealthy [US] Politicians Avoided Paying Taxes.*
Replanting destroyed seagrass meadows by hand is a crucial method of
restoring the ocean's ability to sequester CO2.
It can also provide employment.
The Prison Arts Collective teaches art in prisons in the US.
Beyond enriching their lives, it can also help them learn to live
outside prison.
*The Paterson [corruption] debacle shows that Johnson no longer has
advisers — he has courtiers.* Bogus Johnson repeatedly shrugs off
criticism of his own corrupt acts, and the Tory MPs just barely learned
to resist this to eliminate all checks on their corruption.
China jailed Zhang Zhan for publishing reports on the initial Covid-19
outbreak in China. She has been on a hunger strike, and reportedly is
weak and close to dying.
Reporters Without Borders reminds us that other writers and publishers
are in prison in China for publishing.
*Left Coalition Says McAuliffe Campaign Was a 'Controlled Experiment
for What Not to Do in 2022'. Either excite voters with a bold agenda
or risk losing power to the GOP.*
Questioning the goal, the possibility, and the idea of economic growth.
Economic growth, if it includes the non-rich, offers the opportunity
of a truce in the class war: if we divide the gains fairly, we can all
work together. But fair division is not assured; indeed, it is
unlikely today. What that suggests is that we had better focus
on how the world's income is divided.
While continued economic growth may be impossible, that doesn't
mean further growth is impossible for the next few decades.
It is true that using more resources has the potential to
backfire — but that result is not inevitably big enough to be
a real problem.
Reducing the birth rate so as to start reducing the human population
is a safe and ethical way to enable each of us to have more of some
things that make life more comfortable and enjoyable.
Extinction Rebellion protested at Cop26
against apparent greenwashing.
The thugs are
threatening protesters and blocking protests.
A year ago, Oregon decriminalized possession of illegal drugs.
This article describes the benefits
Baltimore's "conviction integrity unit" determined that David Morris
had been convicted of murder
based on unreliable testimony
and invalid
evidence. He will be freed after 17 years in prison.
*The real lesson of the election results?
Democrats must go big and bold.
*
Plutocratist Democrats say that plutocratist Democrat Terry McAuliffe
lost the Virginia governor's race because progressive Democrats are
stubbornly pushing for the progressive policies most Americans want.
This makes no sense, but you have to expect plutocratist politicians
to blame progressives for everything.
(satire) *
Democrats Spooked By Loss In Virginia Vow To Work Twice As Hard To Muddle
Their Agenda.*
The Pentagon investigad its last drone attack in Kabul -- the one thet
killed the Ahmadi family -- and concluded that troops properly
followed the procedures intended to avoid attacking civilians.
Nonetheless,
the procedures gave the wrong conclusion, and the attack
hit civilians.
What this shows is that the procedures are not entirely reliable.
What is not so clear is whether there is a way to make the procedures
more reliable. A way may exist, but we can't assume a priori that
there is one. It's possible that the procedures are unreliable and
yet there is no way to make them reliable.
That sort of thing happens in war. It is called "the fog of war" --
there are crucial facts that you need to know, which you can't know.
Without them, you have to make decisions based on guesses.
But what if the army changes the question? What if it considers
an option that wasn't considered in August?
For instance, what if one drone hovers in front of the car, making it
slow down and stop, while another drone stays ready to attack? The
reactions of the people in the car might show whether they are
bomb-throwers or harmless civilians.
Senator Schiff
calls for the US to state clearly its commitment to
defending Taiwan if China attacks,*
The logic of this is obvious: to make sure doesn't someday attack Taiwan
on the supposition that the US will not help Taiwan resist.
I am unable to judge how "strategic ambiguity" might help avoid an
attack, but I won't claim that is impossible. I am no expert on
displomacy.
*Restoring mangrove swamps could be an effective way of
sequestering
large amounts of carbon in the sea.*
I see two possible problems with it.
*NIH Officials Worked With EcoHealth Alliance to
Evade Restrictions on
Coronavirus Experiments.*
These experiments took place in the Wuhan lab in China, with US
funding specifically to do these experiments, and the experimenters
pushed the safety limits.
These experiments did not cause a pandemic, but there was a risk they
could have done so.
The Senate tried again to hold a vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights
Advancement Act, mainly to pressure Manchin and Sinema,
who insist on
maintaining Republicans' power to block laws.
*The Senate needs to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,
and a suite of other democratic protections, in
time for them to be
implemented before the 2022 elections.*
The Federal Election Commission ruled that foreign companies (and perhaps foreign individials and governments too)
can contribute to campaigns for and against
ballot questions.
The International Criminal Court will
investigate accusations of torture
by Venezuelan state suppression forces -- with Maduro's agreement.
Interviews with exiled Nicaraguan opponents of the Ortega couple's
dictatorship,
including their daughter.
*Why is Trudeau pressuring
Michigan to keep a dangerous oil pipeline open?
*
Author Jen Wasserstein says,
"My life without a smartphone is getting
harder and harder."
Good on her to resist, but she should stop doubting the rightness of
her resistance.
It is interesting to compare her account my own experiences this year
without any portable phone whatsoever, in Europe as well as the US.
There were inconvenient moments, but I always got through them.
I am fortified in my resistance by knowing powerful moral reasons to
condemn portable phones. It's not just that I find their effect on
other people alarming. I recognize them as a threat to democracy
due
to their massive general surveillance
as well as an injustice to each user (due to their remotely
modifiable nonfree software). As a result, I never feel abashed about
rejecting them, nor ashamed if the ignorant look askance. I am proud
of my resistance.
When a waiter tells me to scan a QR code, I move my finger slowly over
it while staring at it intently, as if a menu should magically appear.
After sufficient time, I may say, "It doesn't seem to be working."
Try it, it's fun!
Please join me in resisting the pressure to make everyone run nonfree
software.
Even if you only say no once, saying no even once is helping.
And once you've said no the first time, the second time is easier.
New York City has reduced the debt payments for
taxi medallion owners
who borrowed to buy a medallion.
One of several contributing causes of the medallion owners' problem is
the arrival of Uber, which was prepared to lose billions of dollars a
year for many years to wipe out the taxi companies.
Uber would have been an injustice simply for the concentration of the
industry of replacing many small local companies with one large
company, even if there were nothing else wrong with it. But its
biggest wrong is to its customers: it makes them run a nonfree app
on a nonfree operating system, and they can't pay anonymously since
the company does not accept cash.
Uber was compelled to stop running at a loss, and raise its prices.
Uber drivers make less than taxi drivers now. Uber is now weak.
So choose a real taxi, and pay in cash!
Warning of potential abuses in
privatizing access to space.
Communications satellites are already private -- built and operated by
large companies which pay to launch them. It is not clear to me that
SpaceX makes the situation very different. But there may be problems
I do not recognize.
Zillow has given up on the business of
peculating in houses that other
people need as places to live.
Each state and territory in the US has its own laws that determine how
much it
facilitates tax dodging and hiding wealth.
*Banks are still financing fossil fuels –-
while signing up to net zero pledges.*
*"Invisible Toxic Cocktail" in
Tap Water Across US Due to "Regulatory
Capture".*
Many poisonous substances found in tap water
are not regulated at
all by the EPA. These include the PFAs plus many more.
US citizens: call on the Senate to
confirm Jessica Rosenworcel and
Gigi Sohn in the FCC.
If global heating continues, the Great Barrier Reef will be toast.
*Q&A: how fast do we need to cut carbon emissions?*
60% of people from India and vicinity have a particular allele (gene
variant) that doubles the chance of death from Covid-19.
However, the allele is also found (though less frequently) in other
human populations.
I wonder whether people should get tested for this allele.
Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed posted on Facebook that he would
"bury" the Tigrayan rebels; Facebook deleted the post for "inciting
violence".
That is a rather absurd precaution, given that the two armies are at
war.
Why did Facebook do this? I speculate that it is an attempt to ridicule
the idea of trying to stop Facebook from being used to provoke violence.
*A secret document distributed by Israel to justify its terrorist designations of six prominent Palestinian human rights groups shows no concrete evidence of involvement in violent
+activities by any of the groups.*
US citizens: call on JPMorgan Chase and UBS to divest from Amazon oil
and gas, to avoid the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
In Siberia's north, global heating in the summer is drying up lakes,
cratering the ground, and killing young deer.
*Australia’s Largest Retail Union Colludes With Bosses to Exploit Workers.*
Some pizzerias are using robots to deliver pizzas, rolling on
sidewalks -- and, horribly, they require the customer to have a
smartphone.
I urge people to reject the food-delivery gig economy companies
because they require customers to identify themselves and pay digitally
(as well as other reasons).
By contrast, a human delivery agent working for the pizzeria can
accept payment in cash.
The robot is even worse. You have to identify yourself, and you have to do
it with a phone. Instead of paying workers too little, it gets rid of them.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, has posted signs on the street urging people to
go to the restaurant and pick up their order.
*Cop26's worst outcome would be giving the green light to carbon offsetting.*
*Cop26 has to be about keeping fossil fuels in the ground. All else is
distraction.*
*Possible war crimes on all sides in Ethiopian conflict,*
according
to a joint investigation by the UN and Ethiopia.
The EPA must make sure the packaging of our food is not slowly poisoning us.
The US Supreme Court may block all efforts to regulate CO2 emissions;
for instance, the emissions of fossil-fuel-fired generators.
*Ireland would need to cull up to 1.3 million cattle to reach climate
targets.*
If civilization's survival depends on it, Ireland must do it.
The world's greenhouse pledges, supposing they are carried out, might now
limit global heating to 2C.
That's big progress, but not enough to avoid disaster, because (1) 2C
of heating will probably be disaster, and (2) positive feedbacks we
don't know about could come into play.
*The dystopian danger of a mandatory biometric database in Mexico.*
In the past 10 years, Australia has given fossil fuels 37 billion in subsidy;
renewable energy, only 3 billion.
Trying to curb global heating by planting trees will not help much
unless it is done right -- and that's not easy.
Comparing Insulate Britain to the suffragettes shows that their
annoying tactics are justified.
I don't doubt that the cause of saving civilization justifies blocking
highways as a protest. I just hope it doesn't backfire.
The US has put NSO, the company that makes the Pegasus cracking software,
on a blacklist that forbids its use of US technology products.
I wonder if the US will be able to enforce that prohibition. What NSO sells
is software.
Bogus Johnson went by private jet from the climate conference in
Glasgow to London for a reunion dinner.
This makes his words about the need to reduce greenhouse emissions
look like total hypocrisy.
Bogus Johnson has joined the effort to protect MP charged with corruption
from being investigated through Parliament's system for such investigations.
This is tantamount to a campaign to open Parliament to corruption
without limits, at least for his friends.
Some economists say that if the US were racially integrated, that would
increase US economic growth a significant amount.
I think the reason to try to end racism is more fundamental -- it's an
injustice.
Iran has agreed to resume talks on reinstating the non-nuclear deal
that the wrecker cancelled.
*Biden Urged to Repair US-Iran Relations With Humanitarian Aid.*
A stage production directed by Terry Gilliam has been cancelled
because staff at the theater objected to some of his political views.
Cancellationists seek universal support for their political stances,
not by convincing everyone that they are right, but by bullying everyone
who states any doubts.
The President of Palau:
*Frankly speaking, there is no dignity to a slow and
painful death -— you might as well bomb our islands instead of making us
suffer only to witness our slow and fateful demise.*
Arguing that the transition to clean energy will inevitably involve a stage
of using much less energy than now.
Depletion of the easy-extract fossil fuels will make energy more
expensive, years before we have enough green energy capacity to fill
ths shortfall.
Biden has announced new EPA regulations to reduce methane emissions.
*Biden's New Methane Rules "Do Not Go Far Enough" to Slash Planet-Warming Gas.*
The use of AI should be regulated, when it affects the public.
Cop26 has launched a fund that aims to give
1.7 billion dollars to indigenous peoples, and other local
communities, for the sake of ending deforestation.
The money will be used to "support [their] capacity to govern
themselves collectively, assist with mapping and registration work,
back national land reform and help resolve conflict over territories."
This can be a good idea, but it needs to be done carefully.
Indigenous peoples are made up of human beings who have the same moral
and intellectual flexibility as other human beings. After the US
divided up the land of various Indian reservations as private property
of various Indians, many of them agreed to sell that property to
whites. (That was, I think, the US's aim in dividing the land.)
We should give local communities the authority to protect forests and
ecosystems, but not the authority to sell them or despoil them.
Australia's resources minister gave a subsidy to a fracking project
without even considering climate effects.
Australia should have a climate defense minister rather than a
"resources" minister.
Bosnian Serbs are reportedly planning to break away from Bosnia again.
In Sudan, bankers are on strike to protest the military government.
This has brought much of the economy to a standstill, and is causing
hardship for people who don't have cash to buy food.
Is it correct to think of bankers as part of the people?
Is it a good thing that bankers can bring the country to its knees
by striking, or does it show they are dangerously powerful?
*Mercenaries, the army and Bashir-era business interests have seized
control and will sell the country’s resources to the highest bidder.*
Afghanistan's improbable history, from progressive king to
Communist civil war to religious fanatics.
* UK, US and China among countries representing two-thirds of global
economy to agree to push green energy and cars.* They plan to make
many technologies cheaper and make them available to the whole
world, starting with clean electricity, electric vehicles, green
steel, elecrolytic hydrogen and sustainable farming.
This won't make the global heating problem fix itself — we will still need
to end deforestation, and fund quick adoption of these new solutions.
That will require a lot of investment in poor countries.
Yahoo has ceased doing business in China rather than obey China's strict state surveillance laws.
When it is impossible for a US company to operate justly in another country,
it should do as Yahoo just did, and cease operating there.
A woman died in Poland as a result of being denied an abortion. This has
provoked protests.
This was a special case — a late-stage abortion which most European
countries would permit on grounds of medical necessity.
The everyday issue of abortion rights concerns the rights of women who
simply don't want to have a baby.
The US is suing to block the merger of Penguin with Simon & Schuster.
Finally, the US government treats big mergers the way it should never have
stopped treating them.
Bacterial infections are becoming ever more dangerous due to
antibiotic resistance, which spreads further every year.
In a few decades we will be back where we were in 1940, when there wasn't
much to help people fight fight off an infection in a wound.
The article proposes "more incentives" to develop new antibiotics. I
fear that means "more patent power, as well as subsidies." If we
aren't careful, that will result in antibiotics that are too expensive
for most people to use.
Let's learn a lesson from the other drugs that are so expensive people
die for lack of money. Let's fund more research on antibiotics, and
exclude them from the patent system.
*Facebook to shut facial recognition system and delete 1bn
"faceprints".
*
How significant the deletion of the faceprints is depends on how hard
it would be to regenerate each one.
450 big banks and investment firms will pledge to
reduce greenhouse emissions,
but it looks like that pledge lacks firm requirements.
A San Francisco thug is charged with manslaughter for
escalating a
nonviolent encounter
with Sean Moore to the point of killing him.
Hong Kong now officially
bans documentaries
that depict the massive protests.
Some will be released by underground groups.
*Minneapolis voters reject bid to
replace police with public safety
department.
*
I'm disappointed; this would have made it possible to avoid using armed cops
on most instances.
Liberal justices argued in the Supreme Court that the Texas
bounty-hunter approach to prohibition would, if allowed to stand,
enable any state to wipe out any constitutional right.
A US woman went to a hospital's emergency room and waited 7 hours
without being seen, so she left.
The hospital charged her $700 for that.
Just imagine what they might have charged is someone had actually
looked at her problem!
The root of this problem is the structure of the US medical system,
which pressures each clinical unit to try to gouge patients. We need
to replace it with a national medical system funded by the federal
government.
Every year, Britons march in memory of everyone that
died as a
prisoner of the British state.
I don't use the word "custody" to describe this.
Biden urged
OPEC to increase its oil output
to relieve a temporary
shortfall of oil, and acknowledged the irony of this.
He's right, in a narrow sense. However, I think the economic harm of
capping fossil fuel extraction at the current level would be far less
than the harm done by allowing extraction to increase as the market
would happen.
An intermediate option would be better if it reduces extraction
effectively and soon. Perhaps Biden should have demanded such a deal
before asking OPEC to increase extraction.
The Archbishop of Canterbury presented clearly how much is at stake
when political leaders decide how hard to push to curb global heating:
inadequate effort could
result in a much bigger genocide
than the one
Hitler launched.
Apparently some criticized this statement as disrespectful to Jews,
and he apologized for the alleged disrespect. This criticism puzzles
me, because I don't see any disrespect in his words. They seem
entirely valid to me as a statement of the danger that we face.
What are you going to compare the biggest genocide of all time with,
other than the biggest known genocide of the past?
I think that 6 billion deaths from climate mayhem is plausible. Of
course, that's just handwaving -- we can't know enough to make more
than a rough estimate. If we take effective action and are lucky,
perhaps only a few hundred million will die from climate disorder. If
we run into surprise positive feedbacks, all 7-8 billion humans could
die from climate disorder. All depends on how effectively we curb
global heating.
The US and other main historical greenhouse gas smitters spend more
on keeping migrants out than they spend on
helping poor countries
deal with global heating effects
that drive people to leave.
The jury in Majid Khan's pseudo-trial condemned the
torture he experienced
and called for him to receive clemency.
Allowing Majid Khan to testify about how the US tortured him served
the cause of justice, but prosecuting him based on a confession that
was tortured out of him is a dangerous precedent. Under the usual
rules of the US legal system, his confession should have been
considered inadmissable, the case against him should have been
dropped, and he should have been released.
Sanders is still fighting to allow Medicare to
negotiate drug prices
,
as the national medical services of more civilized countries do. He
faces opposition from plutocratist Democrats as well as from
(plutocratist and then some) Republicans.
*New Zealand plan to halve greenhouse gases criticised as an
"accounting trick".
*
It also depends on supposed
"carbon offsets"
that are not reliable.
An analysis of global heating world politics in
terms of three pressure blocs.
I disagree with the author's final point. The crucial priority in
decarbonizanion is not fairness, it is rapidity.
Going too slow, which the world's governments' current plans would to
do, risks causing the collapse of civilization and the death of nearly
everyone. Even if those deaths are distributed "fairly", that would
still be a bad outcome. We must at all costs act fast enough to
minimize the damage.
Africa is plagued by
anti-vax Christian churches.
We have observed similar problems with Christian sects in the US and
South Korea, and with Jews sects in the US and in Israel.
Governments democratic in form have not made an adequate effort
to curb global heating in time, but authoritarian rulers
are
generally doing much worse.
The article suggests, and I agree, that more and better democracy is
what we need. I put a name to the problem: plutocracy, where
democracy ought to be.
New York State's new greenhouse emissions regulations have
blocked
construction new gas-fired generators.
*The State of the Climate report for 2021:
Extreme weather events are "the new norm".
*
Debunking the Philadelphia thugs' cynical report: in fact, some
bystanders did take action when a
rape was committed on a Philadelphia
subway train.
Everyone: call on Hello Fresh to respect its
workers' unionization drive
and pay its workers enough to live on.
I personally consider it out of the question to be a customer of Hello Fresh
because there is no way to do that anonymously. But that is a separate
and unrelated issue.
US citizens: call on your senators to
defend abortion access for all.
US citizens: call on the US to unlock
Afghanistan's assets so it can buy food.
US citizens: call on the EPA to
speed up regulating PFAs.
New Zealand schools will start teaching the history of
British
colonization of New Zealand.
It is important for New Zealanders to study this history. I hope
however, that the courses will not fall into the widespread modern
myth of nasty Europeans vs the peaceful united native peoples. The
Maori were far from peaceful or united before Europeans arrived, and
the desire to despoil others was not limited to Europeans alone.
Australia will export
"green hydrogen"
to the UK.
That means hydrogen produced without consumption of fossil fuels.
Opponents of Virginia's Republican candidate for governor, a
right-wing extremist,
went to his rally pretending to be his supporters,
while swinging the torches that rightwing extremists carried
violent rally in 2017.
It is valid to try to tie right-wing extremists to recent past acts of
violent right-wing extremism, but this way of doing it was wrong and foolish.
It is wrong because it can have the effect of a false-flag attack.
The Republican candidate denounced it as one, and that was easy to do
because the difference was small. If you're going to criticize
someone through a comparison, you must show clearly and visibly that
it is a comparison rather than a falsehood.
Second, it could easily backfire by winning the Republican candidate
more support from white supremacists.
Just as India's extemist Hindus persecute the Muslim minority,
Bangladesh's extremist Muslims persecute the Hindu minority.
The persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh is not a new thing.
Taslima Nasrin's book Lajja described that persecution in 1992.
Persecution of Muslims in India is not new either.
I wonder if these two persecuted minorities can help each other.
Could Indian Muslims campaign in Bangladesh, and Bangladeshi Hindus
campaign in India, for respect and coexistence?
Probable extreme-right French presidential candidate Zemmour is
using an anti-semitic dog whistle by
attacking Alfred Dreyfus.
A Republican Texas legislator has demanded that school districts
describe all the books they have that might make students feel
discomfort (or various other negative feelings) about their race or
gender.
The aim seems to be censorship.
To illustrate how broad the demand is, consider the plays of
Shakespeare. Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and The Taming of the
Shrew might make students (and others too) uncomfortable for reasons
having to do with race and/or sex.
Will Republicans eventually move to ban them?
If they do, will progressives oppose the move -- or support it?
*New Zealand pledges to halve
greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
*
*EPA Withheld Reports of Substantial Risk Posed by 1,240 Chemicals.*
* Optimistic assessments of progress on tackling the climate crisis were
“an illusion”, the UN secretary general has said in a scathing critique
of world leaders’ efforts so far to cut greenhouse gas emissions and
stave off climate breakdown.*
*Don’t mourn, organise! Politics and poverty have reached the US
sitcom -– and could change everything.*
India has made a climate commitment which won't make major reductions
in greenhouse gas emissions until decades from now.
All countries must push hard to reduce emissions, if we are to have
a chance of avoiding global disaster.
That global disaster will hit India hard. Several major Indian cities
are on the coast, at very low elevation, including Mumbai, Kolkata,
Kochi and Kozhikode.
New York City's order for city employees to get vaccinated convinced a large
fraction to do so.
However, some occupations have a substantial fraction of workers
who have yielded to right-wng brainwashing; they would rather die
than protect themselves and the public.
I regret that firefighters have fallen into this irrationality,
because a right-wing fireman is probably a good fireman nonetheless.
However, a right-wing cop is likely to be a racist thug,
therefore a threat to public safety. It's good to get some
of them off the force.
*As teens left Facebook, company planned to lure 6-year-olds, documents show.*
Let's take care not to focus on manipulation of children
in a way that would excuse Facebook's manipulation of teenagers and adults.
Reporting from Cop26: *The sense of purpose at Cop26 is tangible.*
*Biden, Bolsonaro and Xi among leaders agreeing deal to end deforestation.*
* Campaigners warn Brazil may make empty promises at Cop26 to gain access
to conservation money.*
The EU and Poland are headed for a fundamental conflict which neither
side can afford to lose.
The EU has a grave flaw in that it is not very democratic. In its
structure for legislating, democracy plays a weak role. However, the
Polish right-wing government does not aim to change this. Its goal is
to break the EU's defense of human rights and honest justice.
A summary of
climate-protecting trends
that are seen across the
spectrum of human activity.
They are not growing fast enough -- we need governments to accelerate
them.
The EU and Poland are headed for a
fundamental conflict which neither
side
The EU has a grave flaw in that it is not very democratic. In its
structure for legislating, democracy plays a weak role. However, the
Polish right-wing government does not aim to change this. Its goal is
to break the EU's defense of human rights and honest justice.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass laws to prevent Facebook from
promoting right-wing extremism
over other views.
US citizens: call on Biden to ban
offshore drilling for fossil fuels.
An interview with Steven Donziger, who has been sent to prison
for
suing Chevron on behalf of Ecuadorians whose land was poisoned with oil.
UK prosecutors frequently fail to follow the legal requirement to tell
the defendant's lawyers any information that would help per case. When this
becomes known, the case is dismissed. Many cases are now being dismissed in
this way.
Prosecutors say that their system
is not set up to carry out the requirement.
*Politicians talk about net zero — but not the sacrifices we must make to get
there.*
Announcing a campaign to protect Britain's NHS from privatization.
The Corporations United decision (*) gave every industry the power to
sneer at Congress — and at non-rich Americans.
* The official name of the organization was "Citizens United…"
But since it represented corporations' rights, I call it "Corporations
United."
Douglas Rushkoff: *Exponential Tech Doesn’t Serve Social Good.*
The UK government wants to film protesters with drones operating 1500
feet up, and identify them without their being able to tell.
Pelosi helped Manchin kill the billionaire tax.
Prominent Liberal and Conservative activists and academics have joined
to condemn the fascist threat to democracy.
This includes condemning the Republican Party as it has become,
despite the fact that some of them supported that party in the past.
*Philadelphia to become first major US city to ban police from stopping
drivers for low-level traffic violations.*
The point of this is to protect black drivers from one frequent opportunity
to harass them for "driving while black".
The University of Florida told three professors they were forbidden
to testify as expert witnesses in a case against Florida's latest
voting restrictions law.
What the state is doing is much worse than an infringement of academic freedom.
It is an attempt to bias the trial about the constitutionality of the
voting restrictions law, and thus a second attack on democracy piled
on the first one.
The history of the DMCA and other similar unjust laws around the world.
The DMCA's DRM exceptions process, every three years, is a repeated distraction
from campaigning for what we really need to do: legalize breaking DRM,
and make DRM a crime instead.
See also my 1997 science fiction story, The Right To Read,
which warned
about the dangers of the DMCA as it was still going through Congress.
As far as I can tell, it was the only science fiction story ever
published in the Communications of the ACM.
Universities in the past welcomed argument about important issues.
Now, it seems, they let mobs hound those who disagree.
The G20 meeting did not agree on aiming for net zero even in 2050.
*Sudan coup protesters man barricades on seventh day of unrest.*
This followed a day of large protests in which soldiers fired at protesters,
wounding and killing some.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and say, refuse to have a vote on the
infrastructure bill until the Build Back Better bill is settled and certain
to be adopted.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to refuse to vote on the weak infrastructure
compromise without a vote on the Build Back Better Act.
Even though plutocratists such as Manchin and Sinema got rid of 4/5 of
the original Build Back Better proposal, the Build Back Better act is
still crucial because it has a lot of climate defense. We must insist
that it pass.
Biden offered two California school boards federal funds to compensate
for the salary funds that Disease DeSantis denied them as punishment for
requiring masks. Now DeSantis has arbitrarily fined them the same
amount again.
This act violates federal law, so maybe a court will order Florida to deliver
those funds.
Facebook's "metaverse" means many more kinds of sensors feeding new
kinds of data into each zucker's dossier.
Facebook's attempt to rebrand itself is much worse than a distraction.
(satire) *Congress Addresses Child Care Crisis By Loosening
Restrictions On Locking Children In Car For 8 Hours.*
Venezuela will have another election, with many parties, and the
situation is complex. The US-supported extreme opposition is less
popular than moderate opposition.
Comparing China's renewable energy with America's: both grossly
inadequate but in different ways.
(satire) *NRA Accuses ‘Rust’ Producers Of Endangering Crew By Not
Giving Everyone Guns.*
(satire) *Exxon Staff Wins Company-Wide Pizza Party After Greenhouse
Gas Levels Hit New High.*
Estimating that the wrecker is responsible for around 150,000 American deaths,
by his failure to encourage Americans to wear masks from Sep 2020 to Jan 2021.
Proposing the sort of infrastructure program that the US really ought
to run, in order to move rapidly away from fossil fuels.
* New research reveals how six fossil fuel giants captured European
climate politics.*
Likewise in the US.
A company proposes to make
beehive-protection AI systems
to protect beekeepers' hives.
I forecast these will do to beekeepers what John Deere tractors are
doing to farmers.
The Rolling Jubilee Fund frees Americans from
debt-based perpetual
punishment by buying their debt and cancelling it.
Majid Khan, prisoner in Guantanamo,
has testified about how the US
tortured him.
He has confessed to aiding al-Qa'ida, but we cannot know whether he
really did so. Torture is quite effective at eliciting false
confessions -- that is what it's designed for -- so we cannot presume
he deserved the punishment he has already received.
*Joe Manchin single-handedly denied
US families paid leave.
*
The companies that created the
world's biggest environmental problems
also launch PR campaigns to distract individuals into striving to reduce
their personal contributions to these problems, instead of organizing to
change the systems that cause them. They also lull people with the
fantasy that they might someday enjoy the life styles of millionaires.
I disagree with Monbiot's dismissal of a carbon tax. If the tax rate
is big enough, and schduled to grow steadingly year by year, it can
mobilize massive investment in decarbonization along with general
divestment from fossil fuel companies.
What won't work is a small, token carbon tax.
*Outcry after Oklahoma prisoner
vomits and convulses during execution.
*
I am surprised that people give so much importance to whether the
person being excuted suffers during the process, because in my view
that is a secondary issue. I think the principal wrong of the death
penalty is that the prisoner dies from it.
*Cop26 breakthrough will require
require rich nations to finally make good
Nobody has to suffer from this, if we get the funds by taxing the rich more.
Oil company executives testified to Congress and told
blatant lies
about their past denial
of global heating.
But they did admit to recent lobbying meetings with Manchin.
Rep. Maloney
specifically accused the Exxon CEO
lying about climate
science. under oath.
There are plans to subpoena more testimony from these companies.
*What Big Oil knew about climate change,
in its own words.*
Some conclusions about
planet-roaster strategy.
Global heating effects including fires and droughts, plus deforestation,
have turned some important forests into
net emitters of greenhouse gases.
This shows several examples of positive-feedback effects that magnify
the consequences of our emissions. These examples are well-known, but
we keep discovering new ones.
Meanwhile, some countries are falsifying their progress by
citing
forests
that don't really exist.
Seven years after a
New York City thug
killed Eric Garner, the high
officers of the thug department have refused to testify in an investigation of the killing.
US citizens: call on the FTC to block the proposed merger of Amazon
and MGM.
Any merger that includes (or results in) a large company is harmful;
the details can make it even more harmful, or not.
New Zealand is buying out the homes that are endangered by the
spreading flood zones. It's much cheaper than trying to hold back the
floods.
I would admire the people who stubbornly refuse to move, if their firm
stand could dissuade floods. But the only way to do that is by
curbing global heating.
Canada's supreme court has defended the right to mock other people.
This is a central part of freedom of speech. If it were illegal to
mock people and hurt their feelings, you can bet that the first people
you would be punished for mocking would be greedy billionaires and
right-wing politicians.
*Australia's 2050 net zero emissions plan relies on "gross
manipulation" of data, experts say.*
I am not surprised. The leaders of Australia are planet roasters.
After the big fires, they have been compelled to give lip service to
climate defense, but getting more than lip service out of them
will be difficult.
California is considering a plan to make home solar power more expensive???
Frances Moore Lappé: *America's Killer Diet*.
New Zealand is pressuring the people of the Tokelau Islands to vote
for independence from New Zealand, but they keep voting to remain
a colony.
The highest elevation in Tokelau is 5 meters above sea level. Maybe
the people figure they will be forced to move to New Zealand later
this century.
AI is advancing rapidly, and the dangers that researchers and science
fiction writers have imagined may hit us soon.
(satire) *Andrew Yang Developing New Fourth Party After Failing To
Gain Support With Third Party.*
(satire) *Texas School Censors All Of ‘Huck Finn’ Except The N-Words.*
*This move will allow educators to focus on the key elements of an
American classic without fear of trafficking in the novel’s harmful
themes of compassion and racial equality.*
(satire) *SpaceX Under Fire After Autonomous Rocket Hits Pedestrian.*
(satire) *Billionaire Buying Sandwich Unfairly Targeted With 5% Sales Tax.*
*The Myth of Redemptive Violence* says that the way to solve the
world's problems is by killing.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to end US support for the
war in Yemen.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site,
use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call on Congress to abolish the PAT RIOT Act.
*Beyond Extinction Rebellion: the [specialized] *
protest groups fighting
on the climate front line.
*
Senator Burr is suspected of
giving his brother-in-law a secret
warning
to sell stock because Covid-19 was on its way.
* Nothing and everything and
not nearly enough has changed in the six
years since the Paris climate summit and agreement.
The four players in
our climate future –- climate chaos, climate activism, climate solutions
and climate finance –- are still on a playing field filled with floods,
flames and false solutions.*
*The US should cut the
military budget
to fund Build Back Better programs.*
The UK has
convicted climate defense activists
for painting "lies,
lies, lies" on the office of a denialist lobbying organization.
Compare this "criminal damage" with inundated cities and burning forests.
An FBI thug rushed into a store in Oakland and seconds later shot
Jonathan Cortez dead.
The family demand to know why, and have been met
with harassment.
The Sudanese military rulers are arresting people who supported
democratic government, as well as journalists, and holding them
incommunicado.
Censorship and repression in India reach a lunatic extreme: Indian
Muslims were arrested for celebrating
Pakistan's cricket victory
over
India.
*Banks Lobby Against Biden Proposal to Crack Down on
Ultra wealthy
Ultra wealthy "Tax
Cheats."*
*Net zero is not enough -–
we need to build a nature-positive future.
*
*World is failing to make changes needed to avoid climate breakdown,
avoid climate breakdown,
report
finds.*
*The make-or-break climate summit:
here’s what’s at stake at Cop26.
*
Everyone: call on Mastercard to
rules that effectively impose censorship about sex on web sites.
Using the word "adult" as a euphemism for "involving or referring to sex" is misleading as it attempts to deny the fact
that adolescents are naturally fascinated with these matters.
perhaps we should call them "adolescent" instead of "adult".
Please do not use
"content"
to refer to works of authorship or art --
Not even the ones you have a low opinion of, for whatever reason.
Because that usage inherently disparages all works, or all
publications.
US citizens: demand elimination of
state laws that restrict abortions.
US citizens: call on Congress to
regulate collection of data and of
algorithms
to make decisions with it.
US citizens: call on Congress to end
gouging on prisoners' phone calls.
* Oil and gas companies should be treated like the tobacco industry and
denied routine meetings with
EU officials.
*
Edtech companies are already developing great power over the students
in the schools where they operate, and it will get worse. They use
their
surveillance power to manipulate students
, and to direct students
into tracks towards various levels of knowledge, power and prestige.
They also structure their relationships so that they are never held responsible
for the consequences.
The article argues that these companies should need to have licenses
to operate. I am not against that, but I would go further. I say
that the data acquired in a school about any student must not leave
the school's control: whatever computers it gets onto must belong to
the school and run free software. That way the school district and/or
parents can control what it does with those data.
*European Investment Bank to
end all loans
to oil and gas firms.*
It will no longer help oil companies develop wind farms, and that is a
good thing, because those projects help the oil company greenwash its
continued fossil fuel operations. The same funds could go to a
wind farm project that is not connected with an oil company.
Facebook says it will
build a "metaverse".
(Or is that "made it
worse"?) That buzzword is not very precise about its meaning, so if
something does get built, we concretely know hardly anything about
what it might do.
What rhymes with "meta"? "Data". That's what Facebook wants,
and that's what we should refuse to give it. Don't be a zucker!
I won't prejudge it just because Facebook is doing it, but we must suspect
it will mistreat its users. We should pose these questions about it:
A Tennessee Republican state senator, who is one of
ALEC's leaders
,
has been charged with violating campaign finance laws.
Alabama Republicans have made it illegal for schools to teach that any
illegal action is a
legitimate
option.
If interpreted in an evenhanded way, this excludes the American
Revolution from the curriculum, not to mention the civil rights
movement. I expect Republicans to apply the law selectively.
Proper judges would declare it unconstitutional, not because of the
specifics but rather on general principles, but we cannot count on
today's judges to defend academic freedom.
Discounting the value of your own future earnings is economically rational.
But when this is applied to economic models of the future of civilization,
it has the effect of
discounting future generations down to insignificance.
It is valid to discount our own future income, but it is not valid to
discount someone else's future income as if it were going to be yours.
Background to the
coup in Sudan.
Famine will affect
half the population
of Afghanistan this winter.
A low-profile
right-wing lobbying group
guided the bully's "populist"
tax cuts.
to help them benefit the rich more.
Presenting emissions reduction goals in terms of reducing "emissions
intensity" of energy use, for a growing economy that uses ever more
energy, is a
scheme to disguise failure
That's what India is doing.
We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fast. To hold
emissions steady while using more energy won't save our climate.
The US, in order to get its hands on
Julian Assange and subject him
to an unfair trial, has promised the UK that it won't imprison him
in brainwashing conditions at the outset.
But it reserves the right to change that decision later.
Wrong as it would be to imprison Assange for journalism, the worst
thing that has happened so far is the UK's decision that it will in
general extradite journalism suspects to the US, agreeing to the US
claim that journalism is "espionage".
Europe's refugee crisis from 1946, with which to
compare that
of the
present day.
US Citizens: call on the house investigation to
demand testimony from
the representatives
accused of helping to plan the attack on the Capitol.
The Brazilian Senate recommends charging Bolsonaro with crimes of
recklessly exposing Brazilians to Covid-19, and being responsible for
as much as 300,000 deaths.
Amnesty and Human Rights Watch jointly condemned Israel's labeling of
Palestinian human rights defenders as "terrorists".
*World’s chief scientists urge Cop26 attendees to step up low-carbon policies.*
*Long Beach school safety officer who shot teenager charged with murder.*
It's rare that school thugs actually kill a teenager, but quite common
that they send students to prison. That's the real reason why schools
should not have them.
(satire) *Construction Finally Complete On Canal Connecting Chemical
Runoff With Mississippi River.*
China will put limits on constructing very tall buildings.
They divert resources in a direction that isn't useful.
In Honduras, climate disasters rain down on the poor and there is nowhere
for them to go.
When I think about this situation, I cannot escape the conclusion
that, in the long term, any solution to the problem of people with
nowhere to go must include limiting the population.
This article argues that oil extraction will collapse in the 2030s,
because the fraction of oil extracted that will
have to be burned
so
as to extract oil will increase to a level that won't be profitable
to continue.
I don't have the knowledge to judge whether this is true. But if it
is, that may provide the necessary extra impetus to move the world
quickly to renewable energy.
US citizens: support the
Stop Wall Street Looting Act.
*Sudan coup: US condemns
military takeover
as protests rage overnight.*
China has an agency dedicated to expats from China, including
Tibetans. Its mission is to
spy on them, pressure them, and occasionally
threaten, attack or kidnap them.
I wonder: When the US catches Chinese agents stalking exiled Chinese
dissidents, what sort of crimes are they charged with, and what sort of
sentences do they serve? Are the sentences long enough to discourage Chinese
from trying such violence, or do they consider it a slap on the wrist?
Mexico is passing a law to impose
government regulation
on traditional
medicine.
*‘Conditioning an entire society’: the
rise of biometric data
technology.*
Some islands between Australia and New Guinea will be inundated unless
we curb global heating fast. Inhabitants are
suing Australia to demand this.
US citizens: call on senators to pass the PRO Act, to help workers
unionize.
Half of US Democrats don't want to
"hold the fossil fuel companies
accountable"
for putting Earth's climate on the path to global
disaster.
More info about the
survey results.
I think that "holding those companies accountable" for the fire they
have started is a secondary issue. What's most important is to push
them aside, and incapacitate them if necessary,. so they can't
interfere as we try to put it out.
*Toxic fracking waste is
leaking into California groundwater.*
*How the US fails to take away guns from *
domestic abusers.*
*Another Struggle for Long Covid Patients:
Disability Benefits.*
*Half a Million South Korean Workers Walk Off Jobs
Walk Off Jobs
in General Strike.*
It would be great to see American workers do that.
A big Dutch pension fund has decided to
divest from fossil fuel
companies.
In February 2019 a Facebook employee in India created a test account
to see what Facebook would recommend to new users.
Perse saw the site
recommend a flood of
violent
hatred Pakistan and against Muslims.
Over 20% of women in the UK military report (in a survey) receiving
sexual harassment, and a like number report receiving emotional
bullying.
The Democratic Party in Congress has a secret committee in charge
of committee assignments. Its rules and its membership are secret.
All we know about its operations is that
it seems very responsive to interests with lots of money.
An FBI document explains how it gets tracking data from US phone
companies.
The issue here is not whether phone companies should answer subpoenas.
Rather, it is what data they accumulate.
To track everyone's movements this way is not merely unjust to each
person tracked. It threatens good government by facilitating the
identification of whistleblowers. It threatens democracy itself, by
facilitating the identification of dissidents.
Therefore, I contend that phone companies should not be allowed to
retain tracking information about any person without first receiving a
specific court order.
As someone once told me, in what kind of state is the job of the
police easy? In a police state.
Rolling Stone says that participants in the attack on the Capitol told
reporters (and the government) that they were in planning meetings with
Republican members of Congress.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez called for expulsion of any members of Congress
that collaborated with the attack on the Capitol.
I agree, but I fear that Republicans lack sufficient patriotism to expel
Republicans for trying to overthrow the government.
I wish it were possible for me to support the campaign, Stop the Money
Pipeline, which aims to get banks to stop investing in fossil fuels.
I can't, because its web site depends on nonfree Javascript code to
the point where I cannot ethically refer anyone to it.
I would like ask them to change this, but the site shows no way to
contact them — no email address, no phone number, no postal address,
nothing.
Can anyone tell me a way to reach them?
In the mean time, they make one concrete recommendation that I can
state here: move your money (and organizations' money) out of Chase,
Wells Fargo, Citi and Bank of America.
The military have taken over Sudan and arrested some or all of
the civilian government.
Funded right-wing groups are encouraging anti-maskers to bully school
board meetings.
*Doctors and medical experts say private equity firms and profiteering
corporations are putting American lives at risk and compromising the
practice of medicine.*
Manchin may have doomed civilization by killing hope of adequate US
climate action. Years before that, the first consequence could be a
big economic gain for China at US expense.
Perhaps some businesses and investors, too hard-nosed and
short-signed to care about the future of civilization 40 years from
now, will care enough to try to prevent that.
A campaign aims to clear the name of the thousands of European women
(and some men) who were executed for imagined witchcraft.
We should not allow fantasy about magic and witches, whether good or
bad, to distort our idea of reality. In reality, there is no such
thing as magic. There is advanced technology which can appear
"indistinguishable from magic", but it isn't really magic, and doesn't
involve devils.
There are real poisons, and are occasionally used for murder
or
attempted murder,
but they are physical substances and always administered by
non-magical means.
West Virginia has problems due to global heating: floods often block
roads and cut towns off from travel. They also often cause long power
outages. It needs both infrastructure improvements and a curb on
global heating.
Thus, Manchin is serving his state badly.
How can you trust that an app really won't send some company your
location data, when you tell it not to?
The only way you can trust a program not to do something it isn't supposed
to do is if it is free software, so that the user community can check it.
Our awareness of what the world has done to deal with Covid-19 leads
us to envision, for the first time, a global medical system capable of
dealing properly with a global pandemic. Alas, today's global medical
system is far from sufficient.
It won't be ready for the next pandemic either, unless we make it
a lot more capable.
How can you trust that an app really won't send some company your
location data, when
you tell it
not to?
The only way you can trust a program not to do something it isn't supposed
to do is if it is
free software,
so that the user community can check it.
Our awareness of what the world has done to deal with Covid-19 leads
us to envision, for the first time, a
global medical system
of
dealing properly with a global pandemic. Alas, today's global medical
system is far from sufficient.
It won't be ready for the next pandemic either, unless we make it
a lot more capable.
Nigeria's population growth has taken up the
land where herders
used to
move their herds.
DeSantis gave Florida a surgeon general that aims to spread Covid-19.
"Ripper general"
would be a more fitting title for him.
The ripper general went to a meeting in a state senator's office and
refused, by ideology, to wear a mask. The senator told him to leave.
The article doesn't explicitly say so, but I think he did leave.
The fact that this senator has cancer, and therefore is extra
vulnerable to Covid-19, doesn't actually change the moral issue. If
she did not have cancer, she would be no less entitled to have people
wear masks when in a room with her.
*[The corrupter]'s judges will call the shots for years to come. The
[US] judicial system is broken [as a result].*
Remember that Republicans in the Senate prepared to do this, by
blocking Obama from appointing any judges for years.
[pol note]
Anthropic emissions have raised Earth's CO2 concentration
to a level
not seen for the past 3 million years.
Rare heavy rains in California caused caused floods and mudslides,
but may
not leave enough in the soil to end the deep drought.
*Banning anonymous social media accounts would only stifle free speech
and democracy.*
I post a reference to that article because it is well-argued, but I
don't agree with it 100%. I think that banning the posting of
"disturbing" language goes too far. Also, it repeatedly refers to
an unspecified hypothetical individual as "them", and I find that
quite annoying.
Dutch right-to-die activist Wim van Dijk announced that he has sold
a suicide powder to 100 people, and calls for a national debate about
assisted suicide.
This manner of distributing means for suicide has a drawback: the same
chemical might well serve for murder. It is surely possible to craft
rules that will enable people to commit suicide if they firmly and
persistently want to do that, while making other effects unlikely.
US citizens: phone your senators to support taxing the rich more.
Here's a suggested script to say.
A US court recognized hippopotamoses in Colombia as "legal persons".
The article explains that this means much less the it sounds like,
but also calls it a "milestone victory".
If hippopotamoses are treated legally as persons, there is no telling
what might be next to receive that privilege. Corporations???
China promises a substantial decrease in fossil fuel use by 2060.
However, it may not be as much as it sounds like. If China doubles
its power output by 2060, 20% of that power amount would equal 40% of
the current power output. That would still be a substantial decrease
compared with today's fossil fuel use, but China can and must do more.
*Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds.*
The capture of one cocaine gang leader is not likely to make any
important change in the drug smuggling industry.
There may be a temporary increase in violence as gangs reshape their power
relationships, but nothing fundamental.
Similarly, when the leader of a guerrilla organization or terrorist
organization is killed, don't expect that to change much.
Car-tracking license plate cameras are now being sold aggressively to
cities and neighborhoods around the US. Even individuals can buy them
and set them up.
The article inexplicably presumes that there's nothing dangerous about
letting thug departments run these cameras. I think that's the most
dangerous mode of operating them. However, allowing individuals and
businesses to run them is almost as bad, because some business will
start collecting and correlating the data.
Deleting all the data after 30 days is useless as a precaution if it
is practical to copy all the data to another server before it gets
deleted.
To make these cameras safe, getting the data out of the camera should
require physical access to the camera. That will make them security cameras
rather than surveillance cameras.
The inconvenience of this will
assure that people do it only in the case of real need.
It is ok for the camera to read a list of vehicles being sought
and alert someone when one of those vehicles passes by.
Plastic generates a considerable amount of greenhouse gas emissions,
and it's increasing.
Comparing the increase of plastic's emissions with the decrease of
coal burning emissions seems beside the point. We need to decrease
them both.
A hundred thousand suckers reportedly gave out iris scans to get
a little of a new cryptocurrency.
Ethiopia is attacking Tigray by air.
Ethiopia says it attacked military targets. Tigray says a bomb hit a
hospital. I have no way of telling what the truth is, because I know
of no source of information I can count on. Even on bigger questions,
such as what the various armies are doing and with what amount of
success, we have very little information compared with (for instance)
Syria and Libya.
Google claimed privately that it had succeeded in slowing down the
European Union's efforts to regulate online services (and dis-services)
for users' privacy.
In Canada, an ethnic group with mixed ancestry has applied for (and
been granted) the same legal entitlements that indigenous groups get,
and this has created a conflict between them and the "pure" indigenous
groups.
Anti-vaxxers now spread the questionable claim that recovering from Covid-19
gives more immunity than vaccination.
I don't know whether there is a systematic difference between the
levels of immunity that result from Covid-19 infection and from
vaccination, but it's clear that the former is much more risky — the
chance of lasting disability after an infection seems to be more than
10%.
Given the choice between getting vaccinated now, or waiting to catch
the disease, it is far better to get vaccinated.
*The White House released a report on the financial risks associated with
the climate crisis — a document critics say would have been promising
at some earlier point in history but that falls "pitifully" short
given the urgency of the crisis.*
Salafi Arabia says it will achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions by
2060, even more late than the Paris agreement.
The details hardly matter, given that this refers only to Salafi
Arabia's direct emissions, and does not include the emissions that
result in other countries from using the petroleum that Salafi Arabia
sells to them.
By contrast, the commitment to cut methane emissions by 2030 will be
significant, if it really happens. Planting billions of trees could
do some good…if they survive global heating.
Russia has installed censorship boxes
in many Russian ISPS and gatewys.
It can block specific pages of sites, and it can also slow them down.
In the last days of filming the movie Rust, people in the crew
complained of violations of safety rules. Eventually some
union
members walked out, and the prouction replaced them with non-union
workers but did not fix the safety problems. This seems to be
related to the death that occured on the set.
Plastic pollution in waterways is projected to
double
by 2030 and
triple by 2040.
Friends of the Earth has denounced "carbon offsets"
as a cheap
excuse for avoiding the expensive task of really reducing greenhouse
emissions.
Biden has acknowledged the need to eliminate the
filibuster
*'World conflict and chaos' could be the result of a
[climate] summit failure.
Ireland is considering making contraception gratis for women of age
18-25, and later perhaps for other age ranges.
There should be no lower age limit for gratis contraception.
This article argues for denying people help for suicide on the ground
that inadequate support for sick people would drive them to choose death.
It does happen that some people choose suicide because their options
for living are lousy. It must already happen that, in some cases,
their options for living could be better if they could have certain
kinds of help. I agree it would be good to give them more help. If
this leads more people to choose to stay alive, that's success.
But the question here is whether we should force people to suffer
longer when they would rather die. The article implicitly assumes
that we can compel governments to improve aid for the sick and
disabled by making them people keep suffering. This approach has not
been very effective so far.
Here's a subtle discussion of the disagreement over assisted suicide.
*Sen. Joe Manchin Has Been Fighting to Keep Billions in Subsidies for
Fossil Fuel Industry.*
*Canadian military leaders saw the pandemic as a unique opportunity to
test out propaganda techniques on an unsuspecting public.*
*Luxembourg first in Europe to legalise growing and using cannabis.*
Republicans are passing laws to reduce the powers of public health
officials.
This has a specific short-term goal, to prevent Americans from
protecting themselves from Republican Covid-spreading policies. Also,
they have a pattern of shifting powers away from local or statewide
officials (safe from gerrymandering) to state legislatures (where the
Republican Party maintains power with a minority of votes via
gerrymandering).
*Self-Proclaimed Pro-Climate Corporations Have Been Giving Thousands to
Manchin and Sinema.*
The prevalence of guns in Hollywood movies has tripled since 1985.
This can influence people (especially children) who see the movie to
play with guns.
Alleging that the UK-New Zealand business-supremacy treaty would
cause economic losses and undermine climate defense.
That's in addition to imposing a sort of race-based censorship.
*Iranian women journalists, imprisoned journalist’s mother jailed arbitrarily.*
*ICE Review of Immigrant's Suicide Finds Falsified Documents, Neglect,
and [use of solitary] Confinement.*
*Fate Of Anti-War Journalism Lies in Upcoming Assange Hearings.*
Not directly in what happens to Assange himself, but in whether the US
can prosecute journalists and news publishers for "espionage" and entirely
disregard the public's right to know.
Taliban are seizing land and homes from Afghans because of political
and religious disagreements.
Australia and Japan are lobbying to weaken the world's climate defense plans,
alongside OPEC countries such as Salafi Arabia.
If we had all known in the 1970s how dangerous Middle East oil would be
to the Earth's ecosphere, maybe world powers could have made an agreement
to keep most of it in the ground.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reminds Americans not to give up on the fight
for a real climate/relief bill. It's not over yet.
*New analysis has suggested that unvaccinated individuals should expect
to be reinfected with Covid-19 every 16 months, on average.*
US citizens: call on world leaders at COP26 to adopt a Fossil Fuel
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Covid is increasing in the UK despite most people's being vaccinated.
UK unions and medical officials call for strict enforcement of mask
requirements and distancing, to protect their workers.
Israel has labeled prominent Palestinian human rights organizations
as "terrorist", claiming that they secretly work for the PFLP.
It could perhaps be true that there are people in those organizations
that secretly work with some PFLP activists. It might be difficult
for the organizations to prevent that, or even find out about it.
But given Israel's history of distortions and lies in regard to
Palestinians, and its contempt for their human rights, I don't
consider it plausible. I have more confidence in B'tselem.
The UK and New Zealand have agreed on a business-supremacy treaty that also
imposes race-based censorship.
UK governments do not hesitate to censor, so the Tories probably
consider this an insignificant concession. But it is an injustice
nonetheless. We must defend the right to mock anyone whatsoever, or
soon we won't be allowed to mock anyone at all.
The idea of "Cultural appropriation" as wrong is a misguided concept,
so analyze real situations based on better concepts.
Increased heat in some regions is causing an increase in kidney disease.
While Manchin demands to eliminate climate defense from the Build Back
Better bill, the chair of House climate panel recognizes that it's
already inadequate.
UK radio broadcasters have noticed that dis-services such as search
engines, especially voice-controlled ones such as Alexa, can
manipulate users into not listening to UK radio broadcasts.
*Oil and coal-rich countries lobbying to weaken UN climate report, leak shows.*
Democrats are offering Manchin "compromises" that would effectively
vitiate the climate parts of the Build Back Better bill.
That would give Manchin a total victory that costs him nothing.
It would be better to say that Manchin has blocked passage of the
bill. Then he would receive the blame for that.
*Amazon workers in Staten Island to file for union vote.*
New Zealand will require the larger banks to report on the climate risks
to their investments.
Billionaires use special kinds of trusts to hand billions to their heirs
with no inheritance taxes.
*US Judge Rules Guantánamo [prisoner]'s Imprisonment Illegal.*
I expect this will be appealed up to the Supreme Court. If it affirms
the decision, I am not confident that will result Asadullah Haroon
Gul's release. That's because the US treats continued imprisonment as
the default, even if it is illegal, unless all the conditions combine
to make the prisoner's release an option.
That is clearly unjust. If the US has no legal basis to
keep someone in prison, it must release per, even if that
means releasing per into the US as an immigrant.
If US officials didn't want that, they should have treated him
justly.
After Virginia ratified the Equal Rights (for women) Amendment,
the bully's lawyers declared that it was too late, because the deadline
had passed. A congresscritter says that that was mistaken, and that Biden
should reject that conclusion and allow the ERA to enter the Constitution.
I support the ERA. I am not an expert on the legal question of whether
it is still possible for it to be adopted under the law from the 1970s.
Asylum officers, who interview asylum-seekers, are told of long lists
of crimes committed against them by US border thugs.
These include beatings, threats of rape, rape, and tricking them into signing
away their legal rights.
*Internet Service Providers Collect, Sell Horrifying Amount of Sensitive Data, Government Study Concludes.*
ISPs should be forbidden to install equipment to examine packets to learn
anything about the people talking on the internet.
The Burmese military government released some political prisoners,
then almost immediately arrested them again. It was apparently just a
cruel mind game.
Research has discovered that Twitter's
algorithm for promoting tweets results in a large right-wing bias.
Twitter says it does not know what causes this.
*After Getting 'Stealth Bailout' During Pandemic, US Corporations Try
to Kill Proposed Tax Hikes.*
US citizens: call on the Justice Department to prosecute Bannon without delay.
US citizens: call on Biden to stop approving fossil fuel projects and
declare a climate emergency.
Biden can personally block 24 large fossil
fuel projects, achieving an enormous reduction in future greenhouse gas
emissions.
US citizens: call on Biden not to retain Jerome Powell as chair of
the Federal Reserve.
US citizens: call on John Deere to give fair pay and benefits to
its workers (some of whom are now on strike).
Jurists are concerned that expanding the US Supreme Court could
undermine the court's legitimacy.
Indeed it could, but Republican
manipulations, and the decisions that result, are doing exactly that.
Biden should endorse expanding the court.
Expansion may not be the best solution. I read an article proposing
instead to reduce the size of the court, which would kick the most
recently elected justices down to appeals courts. However, we don't
need "the best solution" — any solution is better than none.
Meanwhile, any such plan will run into Manchin running interference
for the Republicans.
*House Progressives to Pelosi: Reject Divisive Means-Testing in Favor
of Universal Benefits.*
I sympathize completely with those who say that wealthy people should
be paying more, not receiving more. But the amount we would get from
rich people by denying them these benefits would be minuscule, not
enough to justify the future weakness that would result from limiting
these benefits to poor people.
Instead, we should make the rich pay taxes on all their income and
property. That would bring in far more funds. However, Manchin
specifically opposes that too.
Why does the spending in the Build Back Better bill have to be
specifically "paid for"? It's not something the US needs to do for
economic reasons. Deficit spending is entirely possible, and
economically desirable now. Congress doesn't trouble to make sure
increases in military spending are "paid for" by savings or taxes.
The reason is that plutocratists adopted an arbitrary "pay as you go"
rule for spending on things that will help Americans, and that applies
to the Build Back Better bill.
*Assange: A Threat to War Itself.*
Antivax fanaticism is now splitting the right wing.
Bolivia accuses the alleged assassins of President Moïse of having
tried to kill Luis Arce in Bolivia, before he was elected president.
*If the US could get on a war footing in 1941, we can tackle the climate
emergency.*
Some congresscritters always treat proposals to help the non-rich as
dangerous traps to be avoided. Strangely, they don't say the same
about military plans.
MIT invited climate scientist Dorian Abbot to give a talk, then
uninvited him under pressure from a mob who disapprove of some
of his political views.
I support affirmative action. Experiments show that judging
individuals' scientific work is systematically biased by racism and
sexism,
and they affect people's chances in other ways too.
Affirmative action is a way of trying to counteract those effects.
At the same time, I defend freedom of speech, including the freedom to
state views that disagree with yours or mine. It is wrong to exile
people from the scientific community over of their views about
affirmative action, or other issues. Universities should resist
attempts to force people into conformity by bullying dissenters. No
one in a university is entitled to be "protected" from encountering
expression of "inappropriate" views. If you don't like them, argue
with them.
What about "citational justice"? It stands to reason that racism and
sexism will affect how much any particular person's work gets cited,
since it affects how people judge that work. Some kind of "citational
affirmative action" could be a good countermeasure, but it needs to be
limited, just as affirmative action in admissions is.
Perhaps, "when we cite A, let's also cite B or C."
The article linked to above displays the New York Times' usual
symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid
endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to
bigotry, and normally I decline to link to articles which promote it.
But I make exceptions for some important articles. Usually, they are
articles that give important information about racism or the fight to
eliminate racism. This article gives important information about the
threat to the freedom to maintain heterodox views about anything that
many people want to censor.
*Ivory poaching has led to evolution of tuskless elephants, study finds.*
Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators marched in Sudan.
This shows that the people are not on the side of the protesters that
want a coup. But even though the military don't have enough support
to make a coup look like "back by public demand", they still might
have a coup.
*House [of Representatives] holds Trump ally Steve Bannon in criminal
contempt of Congress.*
I am relieved that the House did not shrink from this confrontation,
because the trumpets believe they can get away with anything by
bluffing.
US citizens: phone your senators at 1-833-497-4273 and say to
get rid of the filibuster.
Especially if you live in West Virginia or Arizona.
*The United States Must Rejoin the Global Biodiversity Conservation Community.*
*The future of Europe is at stake in the fight for Germany’s finance
ministry.*
The world needs deficit spending, both to help the people rendered
poor by Covid-19, and to curb global heating. Politicians that oppose
this commit mass murder, and that's what the "Free Democrats" advocate.
The US must establish a national medical system, and not only to give
Americans better health and longer life. There will be many secondary
benefits for the non-rich.
(satire) *Experts Warn Everything That Will Happen Between Now And
November 2022 Could Spell Trouble For Democrats In Midterms.*
It's only mildly an exaggeration over what I have seen in CNN.
Some congressional Democrats have asked Biden to investigate whether
he has the legal authority to seize and publish the recipes for making
Covid vaccines, saying it could be so.
The US has been reelected to the UN Human Rights Council, but it still
needs to change policies so as to respect human rights.
The UK and the EU have once again blocked a patent waiver for Covid-19
vaccines.
That article is based on total acceptance of the twisted concept of
"intellectual property".
That term is an over generalization and
misrepresents the laws it purports to describe. It also embodies a
perverse choice of values. The term was adopted, a few decades ago,
to make unjust rules seem inevitable and to make patent waivers seem
radical and shocking.
We would help the chances of implementing patent waivers, now and in
the future, by rejecting that term and the premises it promotes.
As for the TRIPES agreement, it implements bogus trickle-down
economics. We should abolish it.
Advances among low-income voters were crucial for Biden's victories in
several swing states.
The US deportation thugs have a new torture device with which they tie a victim up in a painful position in which perse almost can't breathe.
They used this to deport victims before their asylum hearings
determined whether they were entitled to remain in the US.
Farmers and tractor factory workers should realize they are all in the
same boat against an exploitative company such as John Deere.
Extinction Rebellion protested the headquarters of the US Chamber of
Commerce, a plutocratist lobby group that helps fossil fuel companies
continue procuring the death of millions of people around the world.
The US is suspected of inviting Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO.
That's a foolish strategy now, just as it was earlier in this century
when the US and Russia still had a mostly friendly relationship.
Indeed, the two might still have one, if the US had not encouraged
Georgia's belligerence toward Russia.
Having buffer zones between powers is important for peace between them.
Manchin proposed a weakened "compromise" voting rights bill, but he
could not find ten Republicans to support it. They are determined to
rig the next election.
There's only one question left for Manchin and Sinema: will you let
the Republicans rig the election, or will you support that?
I've seen a rumor that Manchin is threatening to become a Republican.
That somehow doesn't surprise me. But it is a dangerous threat,
as it would be considerably worse than what he is already doing.
Quebec announces the plan to put a end to fossil fuel extraction.
Ecuador's new president is a hard-line plutocratist and extractivist,
who has declared the intention to flood the world with disastrous
quantities of fossil fuel.
Since global heating will kill hundreds of millions, or perhaps even
billions, we should think of fossil fuel extraction as a form of war.
Eventually we will need to threaten retaliation with war to stop the
extraction.
The French oil company Total knew in 1971 that its extraction of fossil fuels
would lead to global disaster.
(satire) *Biden Scales Down $2 Trillion Climate Plan To Single
Reusable Grocery Bag.*
However, that was still too much for Manchin.
Senator Warren and others have proposed a bill to protect real businesses
from "private equity".
An extreme example of how US hospitals prioritize money over human health.
Meeting in support of Julian Assange, Monday Oct 25 2pm-4pm
First Church Cambridge, 11 Garden St, Cambridge Mass.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to call for closing the
carried interest loophole. This is explained in a previous pol note.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Pfizer uses its control over vaccine supply to bully governments into
giving it special privileges.
Please keep in mind that "intellectual property" is a bogus concept which
misrepresents the various laws it pretends to refer to, and causes confusion
every time it is used.
Hungary's opposition alliance now faces the ultimate test: the
election for parliament, in which Orbán will either hold or lose
control over the government.
Texas Republicans have twisted new census figures to concentrate the increased fraction of Latins into a smaller number of congressional districts.
*Toxic algae blooms are multiplying. The [US] government has no plan to help.*
The UK is going to spend millions to pay for building two large
facilities for CO2 capture,
CCS may eventually work, but we need to remember that (1) it will take
many years to finish these facilities, (2) it can't capture all the CO2
produced in the factory or power plant it is attached to, and (3)
building solar and wind power will avoid a lot more CO2 emissions for the
same amount of energy. It might ultimately be useful, especially for
making concrete, since clean electricity won't help with that.
The UK's plan to fund replacement of 90,000 home boilers with heat pumps
is at the same time a substantial step forward, and totally
inadequate.
That happens often because the efforts so far to defend the climate
are several orders of magnitude less than what is needed.
I've also read claims that these heat pumps are not very efficient.
*‘Some call it a circus’: dictator’s son, boxing icon and former actor vie to lead Philippines.*
New Zealand is passing a law that will increase housing construction
and promote denser housing.
Arguing that paleolithic humans in many parts of the world had a wide
range of social organizations, and that it was quite usual for a
people to switch during the year between various forms of social
organizations — even between nomadic bands and farmers.
If it was common during hundreds of thousands of years to gain the
status of chief by success in leadership while alternating annually
between two levels of social organization with two different
relationship requirements for success, this would have been a
selective force towards ever greater emotional intelligence.
In London, a last protest against the decision that Julian Assange
committed a crime that justifies extradition.
Even more important than whether Assange is punished for publishing
important news about government crimes is whether the UK gets away with
a series of lies and crimes designed to railroad Assange.
Even more important than that is whether this case establishes a
principle that publishing important news about government crimes is a
crime.
*"Religious exemptions" threaten to undermine US Covid vaccine
mandates.*
The reason to require vaccination against Covid-19 is because being
vaccinated protects everyone, not only yourself. For the same reason,
there should be no exceptions for any reason other than medical.
*Let her finish: interruptions of female justices led to new supreme
court rules.*
(satire) *BREAKING: Concern Mounting Over Nothing In Particular.*
How the War on Drugs represses Americans in regard to work.
(satire) *Study Finds Big Bang Result Of Last Universe Blowing Itself
Up With Fireworks.*
The Hindu-supremacist party (BJP) has convinced Indian Hindus (84% of the
population) that they are being oppressed by the Muslims (14%) and
must make violent attacks to avoid being wiped out.
BJP's elected officials legitimize murder of Muslims,
while the former state of Kashmir suffers under a semi-occupation.
(satire) *Florida School Revises Covid Guidelines To Reflect Latest
Misinformation.*
As Manchin demands to cut climate defense from the Build Back Better bill.
threatening to kill it, other Senate Democrats say they will kill it
if Manchin gets his way.
If Manchin thought he could cut whatever he likes and the bill will go
through, maybe seeing that this would actually kill it will make him
accept a compromise. At least, I hope so.
After the murder of an MP, there is pressure in the UK to move MP
meetings with the public to Zoom! People who defend freedom in their computing would be excluded.
Perhaps it would be wise to move to online meetings, but they must not
limit these meetings to use of nonfree software. Britons, please tell
your MP this ASAP.
*Poland: Thousands protest against migrant pushbacks at Belarus border.*
*Biden Faces Deadline for Release of More JFK Assassination Papers.*
* Five years to the day after a family of Syrian refugees were bundled on
to a plane and deported to Turkey despite having lodged asylum claims
in Greece, they are taking their case to the European court of justice.*
Many countries make a habit of deporting people before they have a
chance to apply for asylum and get to the end of the court process to
judge the claim. That cheats them out of their legal rights.
I've see countries including the USA, the UK, Greece and Poland
accused of this.
This Saturday, Oct 23, Richard Stallman will be giving an online talk for the 8dot8
conference, titled Software libre, tu libertad, y tu ciberseguridad
(Free software, your freedom, and your cybersecurity).
US citizens: call on Congress to hold Bannon in contempt
for refusing to testify about the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
The protests in favor of a military coup in Sudan are linked with
a troll farm.
The UK is investigating the thugs that infiltrated various protest
movements under false identities decades ago, and had sexual
relationships with women participants, but is questioning them in
secret to conceal their identities.
The witness that lied to the US government about Julian Assange is now
in jail in Iceland for engaging in a long series of business crimes.
A few UK schools will participate in a pilot project to identify students
for school lunches using face recognition.
This is wrong, but so is using fingerprints to do the job.
Schools should not identify students for lunch; they should simply
give lunch to every student in the school.
*Naming Climate Villains as the World Burns.*
"Femcels" are women who have given up on ever having a sexual
relationship.
Unlike the male "incels", these women don't blame or hate men for not
being attracted to them. They see that as an inevitable a fact of life.
I understand their feelings.
The UK government is aching to respond to the murder of an MP with —
of course — censorship (details to be defined), plus surveillance
(putting an end to anonymous communication).
The Supreme Court upheld the principle of "qualified immunity" for thugs.
This means that thugs can't be convicted for any sort of violence
unless court cases have already established that it wasn't constitutionally
protected.
I've supported campaigns to legislate to change that.
Members of Congress accused Amazon of giving misleading or dishonest
testimony about unfair competition.
Fossil fuel companies plan to extract fossil fuels at an increasing rate,
rather than diminishing it.
And governments are funding this expansion more than they are
funding renewable energy.
The Taliban have agreed to restart polio vaccination in Afghanistan.
*Apple’s plan to scan images will allow governments into smartphones.*
High-tech methods of producing coffee are far more efficient, in terms
of water use and greenhouse gas emissions,
but some oppose using these methods because today's coffee farmers
would no longer have a livelihood.
We must eliminate most greenhouse gas emissions, because the cost of
failing to do so can easily include the collapse of civilization and
billions of deaths. We can't take the risk of continuing dangerous pollution
to make work for people.
Everyone: call on Bank of America not to finance a toxic plastic
factory in Louisiana's "cancer alley".
After some cities and counties in California sued oil companies over
the damage that sea-level rise will cause them, the oil companies
alleged a "conspiracy" between the city officials.
In the long term, the only affordable way to cope with the damage that
global heating will cause if it continues is to stop the heating.
Georgia has undermined the system of tenure in its universities
by allowing university administrations to fire tenured professors.
This will have the effect of censoring professors who might have considered
endorsing, or even investigating, an idea that lots of people condemn.
Modern-day prudery is so strictly opposed to exhibitionism that
museums can't use their famous nudes to advertise their exhibitions.
The saddest thing is that the "solution" they found uses TikTok, which
requires people to run nonfree software which will make them identify
themselves.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to visit a food bank
and see what poverty is doing to millions of Americans.
US citizens: call on Biden to cancel student debt, as he promised.
The global campaign to reduce methane emissions has failed to win support
from some of the biggest emitters.
The US has passed a law to set national standards for computer
security in schools.
I expect the standards will disregard the main security threat in
school computing: the widespread use of dis-services run by companies,
including Google, Microsoft, Zoom and others, that collect personal
data about students, starting with their names.
*Labour spending more on legal battles than campaigning, say sources.*
This supports my impression that the main goal of Labour's current
plutocratist leaders is to kill off the idealism of Corbyn and his
supporters.
*Climate crisis poses ‘serious risks’ to US economy, Biden
administration warns.*
*UK to push plan to ‘halt and reverse global deforestation by 2030’ at Cop26.*
Everyone: call for protecting the shortfin mako shark.
The migrants who drive boats across the Mediterranean are not part of
the people-smuggling gangs that run the migration; they are passengers
who do this work in lieu of paying the usual fee. But Italy
prosecutes them as if they were part of the gang.
Vulture capitalists are buying US newspapers — some prestigious, some
not — and converting them into bargain basement aggregators.
*Factory farms of disease: how industrial chicken production is breeding the
next pandemic.*
The EPA has announced a plan to regulate PFAs more strictly.
Accusing Colin Powell of intentionally lying, when he publicly
insisted that the US had evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of
mass destruction.
*Women on reality TV shows get far more abuse online than men — study.*
"This is our last chance": Biden urged to act as climate agenda hangs by a
thread.
A California law, that regulates how much space pigs being raised must
have to move around in, might make pork a little more expensive.
With luck, that will reduce Americans' meat consumption a little.
That would be good for our health.
Inhabitants of Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory are
systematically attacking Palestinians' olive trees. Often soldiers
join the attack.
This practice has happened every year for many years.
The government almost never tries to protect Palestinians from
this mob violence.
Parents describe giving their child one day of being in charge of the
household.
As usual, the companies that have lent money to poor countries intend to
squeeze their inhabitants to death.
The Burmese military government is putting Aung San Suu Kyi on "trial"
and gives almost no information about this supposed "legal process".
However, her lawyer has given a little information about her, mainly about
her health.
Now he has been forbidden to communicate with the media.
Over a thousand US women have been prosecuted for having miscarriages, or
for taking drugs (even prescribed by doctors) while pregnant.
The US government wants to develop telemetry to monitor stress and
stress effects, in agents that have high-stress jobs.
I don't see anything wrong about this proposed use of the technology,
but I have a hunch that if this system works, the government will also
try to use it as a 24/7 lie detector (whether it is reliable or not).
Private businesses will impose it on their staff too.
British propaganda agents in Indonesia helped bring about the
1965-1966 massacre in which the army and its supporters murdered
500,000 or more Communists and people thought to support them.
*The debilitating effects of long Covid have just begun to hit
economies.* A study of soccer players shows the effect is
substantial.
Those who aim to profit by gentrifying a neighborhood find it useful to
bring in interesting food options, as a first step. That makes wealthier
people interested in moving there.
Protesters in Sudan are demanding military dictatorship.
I have to join those who suspect that this is organized by a military
faction aiming to seize power. Others are planning to rally in favor
of civilian government.
That government has surrendered to oppression by the IMF. If these
protests really mean, "Break the IMF deal," I share the feeling.
The civilian government may have concluded that the loans are necessary
to avoid even worse suffering than the IMF dishes out. However,
if the government doesn't acknowledge what damage the IMF will do,
people will consider it self-serving.
Would a military government reject an IMF "rescue"?
I tend to doubt it. Dictators are generally happy to borrow
money that the people will have to pay back.
Russia and other repressive regimes use Interpol as a system to
trigger repression without trial against dissidents, protesters, and
people who only fail to follow orders.
It is strange that the US doesn't make it standard practice to question
what Russia says about people.
(satire) *Remington Introduces Ammunition For Sensitive Skin.*
British expat Billy Hood made the mistake of living in Dubai. A
friend visited him and then sent him a message about having left
behind some CBD vaping fluid. The thugs of Dubai saw the message,
arrested Hood, and tortured him into signing a confession he could not
read.
Why torture and lie to imprison someone for what they knew was
unintentional possession? Is it that the emir of Dubai set them an
example of sadistic brutality?
Is it that they have to meet a quota of
convictions per month?
Research found that TikTok responds to users that demonstrate interest
in antitransism by showing them right-wing extremism.
This gives some confirmation to the idea that the recommendation
algorithms are what we should demand to regulate and control.
Antitransism is a kind of bigotry — please don't call it a "phobia".
Please don't call publications "content" — that disparages all
publications.
The cable company Charter is making veiled threats against
ex-customers — threats to harm their credit ratings by alleging
unpaid imaginary debts.
US citizens: call on Congress to stop future presidents from bullying
the Department of Justice.
Supposedly China needs coal mining to provide employment in future
decades.
Supposedly, China needs to encourage more births to avoid a shortage
of workers in future decades.
These predictions directly contradict each other, so at least one is
false. But I think that both are false.
If China remains prosperous, and doesn't need everyone to work, it
will have the resources to support everyone with jobs in taking better
care of the old, the young, and the sick, and entertaining each other.
On the contrary, if China has an insufficiency of workers, it will be
able to accelerate the use of robots, delay retirement, and make do
with less conveniences.
What China cannot do is remain prosperous while beset increasingly by
extreme weather, crop failures, and rising seas. The rice-growing
areas of South China are close to sea level and will be inundated,
including major cities such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Nanjing and
Hangzhou. To the east of Shanxi is the North China Plain which
will encounter fatal weather. China had better focus on avoiding
the catastrophe it is creating with fossil fuels.
*The case for minting a $1tn coin to deal with America’s debt ceiling.*
This would be equivalent to abolishing the debt ceiling: it would
deprive Republicans of a recurring opportunity to hold America hostage
and demand real concessions that do real harm. Why give them any more
opportunities?
*Privacy fears as Moscow metro rolls out facial recognition pay system.*
Supposedly this is safe for passengers because only the state's
repression ministry will have access to the records.
These cameras join almost 200,000 surveillance cameras on the street,
which have already been used for face recognition for purposes of
repression.
A call for regulating the use of tear gas in the US.
Many US judges have personal or family conflicts of interest,
which may have corrupted the outcome of many cases.
The US legal system rarely if ever punishes crimes committed by
corporations.
I love the quote from Robert Reich: "I'll believe corporations are
people when Texas executes one."
*Tropical wetlands reduce storm impacts and save thousands of lives
and $600bn each year, study suggests.*
*Hawks on all sides ready to swoop if Iran drags feet on nuclear talks.*
*Hollywood strike averted after union and producers reach last-minute deal.*
(satire) *Similac Introduces New Ghost Pepper Infant Formula.*
(satire) *Intergalactic Animal Rights Groups Condemn Use Of Brutal,
Unsanitary Planet To Raise Human Meat.*
The Huntington Beach oil spill that poisoned wetlands was only 25,000 gallons, much less oil than previously thought. Despite the smaller
quantity, I don't think the damage to wetlands has got less.
Modeling says that the Marshall Islands will be essentially wiped out
by global heating effects. Some islands will cease to exist.
Others will be greatly reduced. The capital of the country will become
mostly uninhabitable. even the buildings that are not permanently flooded.
Novelist Sally Rooney expressed support for Palestine by refusing to
allow a Hebrew translation of her latest book, and is being criticized
with distortions.
As I recall, the BDS movement calls for a boycott of Israeli
institutions, particularly those that support or take advantage of the
occupation of Palestine — not individual Israelis. So I don't think
it suggests refusing to publish in Hebrew.
However, implicit in publishing a Hebrew translation of her book would
be to license that to an Israeli publishing company. The movement
would ask people not to do that.
I myself don't support the Palestinian BDS movement. What I do
support is the boycott, started by Gush Shalom, of products made in
Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory.
US citizens: call on Congress to prohibit Facebook's approach to data
collection.
Note that "collecting, purchasing or otherwise acquiring user
information beyond what is needed to provide the service" is often interpreted
in a weak way. If an organization can justify collecting certain data
because its way of implementing the job requires that data,
it can easily make any data "necessary".
Bangladesh is moving thousands of Rohingya refugees to a low-lying
island where they could all drown.
Memorial, a Russian NGO, defends human rights and teaches about
Stalin's crimes against humanity. It showed a movie about the mass
starvation of the 1930s, and a gang attacked the showing, apparently
with state backing.
Putin is teaching Russians to admire Stalin, perhaps figuring that if
they admire one tyrant they will be happy with another.
Many organizations are working to convince the UK to tax
petroleum-burning vehicles less tax and electric vehicles more.
If the government seeks to promote electric vehicles, this tax change
is foolish.
The construction of a pipeline — even if its contents will be gas —
can cause lasting ecological damage even before anything flows through
it.
If these were the only problems of pipelines, they could be prevented
by building it in more expensive ways. But they aren't the only ones,
of course. We can't afford the existence of more fossil fuel
infrastructure.
Refugees trapped between Belarus and Poland are dying from hunger and cold.
*Tory austerity caused misery — and now they want to make it worse.*
Republicans are attacking the Build Back Better bill with lies about
what it says.
*NYPD Lawyer Who Oversaw Violent Arrests of Legal Observers Should Be
Disciplined, Watchdog Says.*
*Chicago mayor files complaint against [thug] union for defying
vaccine mandate.*
The latest Republican pretext for sabotaging public school is the
demand for parents to control the curriculum.
I would guess that they demand this only where the parents are white
and right-wing.
A judge in England ruled that using an Amazon Ring snooping device
that watched and listened to a neighbor's property violated her
privacy, so he awarded her substantial damages.
(She had actually moved to another home to avoid the surveillance.)
As I see it, what makes these "security" cameras in fact surveillance
cameras is that they can transmit the video and audio over the
network. That capability makes them surveillance cameras rather
than security cameras.
(satire) *Trump Testing 2024 Waters By Inciting Iowans To Burn State
Capitol To Ground.*
*Welcome to the Great Inflation — Or, Why We Have to Pay for the Hidden Costs
of the Industrial Age.*
The article argues that inflation is going to run fast for quite a while.
Alongside increasing poverty.
This argument seems plausible to me. If you know of a reputable
counterargument, I'd like to see it. No conspiratorial explanations,
please — I am very skeptical of them.
I don't think this explains all of what is happening — for instance,
although some jobs have disappeared, that doesn't explain why millions
of job offers are unfilled while millions of people need work.
The perverse and dangerous concentration of industry over the past few
decades has exacerbated the problems we face now. For instance, if we
produced chips in 50 places rather than a handful, most of them would
not have problems at once.
Merck wants to charge Americans $700 for a drug that costs $18 to produce.
That is a ratio of around 39.
The fact that the US government paid for the development of this drug
adds a second kind of unfairness to the issue, but we should not
hammer too much on that, lest people suppose it is OK to gouge on a
life-saving drug in countries that didn't fund its development.
The US should do what more advanced countries have done: set up
a national medical system, fund it well, and empower it to negotiate
the price per dose.
*The five biggest threats to our natural world … and how we can stop them.*
In Syria, the Kurds of Rojava are still fighting the underground
remnants of PISSI, with some help from the US and France.
John Deere exploits its workers as well as the farms that buy its
tractors full of nonfree software. Now the company's US workers are
on strike.
The fires that burned a large part of the fires of Euboia (pronounced
Evia) led the way for another disaster: mudslides
on the slopes that no longer have trees to absorb the water and
hold the soil in place.
Uber and Lyft hope the citizens of Massachusetts will vote to reduce
the drivers' rights. If Proposition 22 passes, they will be paid
effectively 4 dollars per hour while on the job.
(satire) *White House Warns Supply Chain Shortages Could Lead
Americans To Discover True Meaning Of Christmas.*
(satire) The founders of PISSI reminisce about starting in a bombed-out
garage, confident they could outdo the competition.
The freedom to leave children unsupervised for a while is especially
important for single parents.
US disaster relief preferentially aids wealthier households. Poor families
are likely to lose big.
A prisoner in the Washington, DC, jail had to sue to get needed surgery.
The story has a fillip of superficial extra interest because the
prisoner in question was in jail for participating in the attack on
the Capitol. But That shouldn't matter. No prisoner should be denied
needed medical care.
The EPA plans to reform the departments that deal with chemical
pollution and pesticides, so that they won't be pushovers for business.
In the face of public criticism, the University of Cambridge has backed off from the proposed deal with the UAE.
The UK is allowing creditors to garnish the
welfare benefits for poor people,
which are inadequate to start with.
Los Angeles is clearing all the homeless people out of its parks, one
by one. It gives housing to some of them, but what are the rest supposed to do?
*Leaked documents reveal [Amazon]'s private-brands team in India
"secretly exploited internal data" to copy products from other
sellers, and rigged search results.*
This direct anti-competitive behavior is on top of all the other
unjust things Amazon has done to everyone that it comes in contact with,
including customers.
UK cuts to various systems that protect people's health seem to kill
around 10,000 people per year.
This doesn't count cuts to welfare support, although those cuts make
people hungry or homeless.
Some Maori activists are trying to impose a moral imperative that no
one is allowed to do research that pertains in any way to Maori without
having Maori in the team.
No group is entitled to demand control over all studies of topics that
relate to it. Rather, every human being is morally entitled to
investigate any subject.
For some kinds of studies, it is important to have an expert on Maori
culture. Most of those experts are Maori. But that doesn't apply to
chemical testing of ice cores.
WHO will make a new effort to pin down the origin of SARS-COV-2, the virus
that causes Covid-19.
Biden said he will bring back the bully's "remain in Mexico" requirement
for people that ask for asylum at the border with Mexico.
The rapid increase in the value of cryptocurrencies and the suspicion that
people are borrowing money to invest in them makes them a source of financial
instability.
The value of a bitcoin could drop by 10 or 100 in a day.
*EU calls for Arctic’s oil, coal and gas to stay in the ground.*
It is encouraging to see governments propose the measure that is
obviously correct, even if they propose it just for one part of the
globe.
The US Food and Drug Administration aims to reduce the amount of salt
in many kinds of widely eaten foods.
This could save many lives. And it could set a crucial example of
defending people from "market forces" that predictably do harm.
*Chile president Piñera
faces
impeachment after Pandora papers leak.*
I don't know what Piñera actually did, but if he is caught in crime
I will rejoice at his punishment.
This article, like all Guardian articles about the Pandora papers,
equates "do something wrong" with "break a law". Let's take care not
to incorporate that assumption into our thinking. I agree that tax
evasion by the wealthy is unjust, as a general principle. But when
they find lawful ways to dodge taxes, that is not to assume it isn't
wrong.
*The Former Democratic Senators Now Lobbying Against Medicare Drug
Price Negotiations.*
I don't know any way to campaign against ex-senators. We can't vote
them out of office.
(satire) *Atlanta In Chaos After City Changes Names Of All Streets To
"Maple Drive" To Distance Itself From Confederate Past.*
(satire) *Unhappy Nation Wonders If It Just Projecting 45% Approval
Rating Of Itself Onto President.*
*Is America experiencing an unofficial general strike?*
Truck drivers blocked by Insulate Britain activists tried to break
through barricades with their trucks.
It is clear that this method of protest is backfiring. It is
impossible to win a democratic political conflict by causing pain for
the public, because that alienates them instead of winning their support.
Protesters need to find a method of demanding government funds to
insulate homes that wins the support of people who live in homes.
The UK is planning to address the problem of hate-spreading antisocial
media by censorship based on substance, rather than by fixing the
algorithm.
I am not surprised, given the many levels of censorship that the UK
already applies.
They take advantage of Frances Haugan's testimony as an excuse to
disregard what she said and install the repression that they have
always sought.
The EPA continues letting manufacturers of ethylene oxide deny the toxicity
of that substance in EPA events, without correcting them.
Millions of Americans can't pay their gas or electric bills and
are facing shutoffs.
Dominic Cummings, who was Bogus Johnson's imperious advisor, claims that
the terribly flawed deal about customs duties and Northern Ireland,
was a political trick all along, intended to fail.
The British people would be far better off with Corbyn as prime minister.
His basic sincerity is the first of various reasons for this.
US citizens: call on Congress to repeal the Hyde amendment and allow
use of federal funds to pay for abortions.
This is all the more important because the federal government could
pay to help women in Texas get abortions.
US citizens: call on Congress to end US support for Salafi Arabia's
war in Yemen.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site,
use the Salsalabs workaround.
*Poor housing harms health of 20% of renters in England, says Shelter.*
*Serious financial problems afflict 40% of US households in recent months.*
Google and Amazon employees condemn those companies contract to
operate server activities for the Israeli government, which reportedly
uses them to surveil Palestinians.
I don't call them "cloud services" because there is no "cloud".
That term is designed to cloud users' minds.
Facebook maintains three levels of blacklists to restrain the tendency
of its recommendation/polarization algorithm to promote terrorism and
hate.
The blacklists don't prevent the tendency to polarize, only a
fraction of the situations where it does so.
The New York Thug Department, ironically, uses Chinese drones that the
US government considers a surveillance threat.
For most people in New York, surveillance and tracking by the NYPD
through these drones is a bigger danger than surveillance and tracking
by China through the same drones, but a few people will be exceptions.
Why the well-known US billionaires don't appear prominently in the
Pandora papers.
Gaggle surveillance of students means an omniscient idiot is ready to
get a student in trouble with the school system or the law at any time,
based on details of what the student says.
Don't be a fool — don't talk when the school is listening!
The trouble is caused when alerts from the system trigger other systems
that repress students in the name of "protecting" them.
Those other systems are generally intended to protect students from
real dangers of life. If they could reliably tell when a real danger
exists, and if they were designed to "at least do no harm", they might
be helpful. But that's easier said than done. Perhaps we should fix
these systems, and make sure they are not overprotective and harmful,
before we impose them on all children and adolescents.
The UK will be required to allow victims of trafficking to stay and work,
if and while they are making a claim for asylum.
Given the systemic incompetence of the agency responsible for such
issues, I wonder if this ruling will be carried out, in practice.
Based on previous experience, I suspect that the agency will require
each individual to apply for these rights, and will forget to grant
20% of the requests.
*The City of London Is Hiding the World’s Stolen Money.*
Stated without hyperbole, Britain and its territories are operating
tax-dodging schemes that hide a large fraction of the world's
misappropriated wealth.
The world's main producers of cement have committed to eliminate
their greenhouse gas contributions by 2050.
If they carry this out, it will make an important difference. I do
wonder how they plan to achieve it. Also, I think they should commit
to achieve a big fraction by 2035.
The governor of Texas claims to have forbidden companies in Texas
from exercising a vaccine mandate.
I suspect that the governor has no legal authority to impose this by
executive order. Maybe companies can simply ignore it.
Another reason not to fly Cryin'air. During the pandemic, it refused
refunds to passengers who were forbidden to travel, and they got their
credit cards to refund their payments. Now they had bought new
tickets, and just as they arrived to board those flights, they
received a last-minute demand to return those refunds.
An experiment with Polis, a democratic discussion system,
found that it helped people find points of agreement and did not
magnify polarisation.
Of course, it could not eliminate points of real political
disagreement — nor was it intended to — but it seems to avoid
artificially magnifying them or producing them.
This shows what a corrected Facebook might be like. If it does not
fit Facebook's business model, we should abolish Facebook's business
model.
*Mothers sue after children catch Covid at Wisconsin schools with no mandates.*
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support bills to break
up tech monopolies.
I've found information on five of them:
The American Innovation and Choice Online Act,
which prohibits the
use of a dominant platform to discriminate against rivals by giving
preference to its own products.
Platform Competition and Opportunity Act,
which bars the use of
acquisitions to smother competitive threats.
Ending Platform Monopolies Act,
which restrains dominant platforms
from using their power across multiple types of business to give
themselves unfair advantages.
The Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act,
or Access Act, which promotes competition by making it easier for
businesses and consumers to move data when they want to switch
to a new provider.
The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, which amends filing fees and
provides the government with funds to pursue antitrust actions.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
A curious series of gaps in evidence about whether Kwamena Ocran did
or did not shoot a gun at a group of plainclothes thugs had the
ultimate effect of protecting them from charges for killing him.
Tory supporters are starting to say that the hardship they are now
imposing on millions of poor people will be good for them — it will
build their character.
The people with the worst character are the rich people that lobby to
impose more hardship on those who already suffer it. Perhaps they
could use some character-building too.
(satire) *Woman In Giddy Honeymoon Stage Of Hating Someone New.*
For 150 years, the British Museum has kept Ethiopian altar tablets
hidden and has not allowed them to be studied or photographed.
Ethiopians demand the return of these tablets.
Regardless of where the tablets end up, it would be a damned shame if
they don't get photographed and studied in the mean time.
*25% of all critical infrastructure in the US is at risk of failure
due to flooding,*
Getting vaccinated against Covid-19 is especially important for the
pregnant.
The shortage of labor is pushing wages up in the US.
This will be a big help for many low-paid workers, despite the
increase in prices that will result.
The author is mistaken in claiming that wage increases can never be
taken back. Since the 1990s, we've seen companies impose pay cuts
and painful working conditions.
Jurisdictional rules make make it hard even to try to overturn the Texas
abortion-assistant bounty hunter law, even if the Supreme Court
upholds Roe v Wade. However, there are other things Biden could do to
defeat it.
The fact that the law has found a loophole for states to effectively
abolish a constitutional right, with no recourse from federal courts,
indicates that this loophole is a threat to the idea of constitutional
rights in general, and absolutely must be closed.
Brazilian activists asked the International Criminal Court to
investigate Bolsonaro for the crime of mass deforestation.
Since deforestation endangers the survival of humanity, it ought to be
a crime. But is there any law against it? Could the ICC have legal
grounds to prosecute anyone for this?
A poll found that over 3/4 of the UK public support eight strong measures
for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A carbon tax should increase year by year on a preannounced schedule,
to give the vice a turn every year. This way, investors will be able
to estimate what the carbon tax will do to the value of any proposed
investment, ten years or 20 years in the future.
*Living with Covid is not an option in New Zealand — we need near
universal vaccination.*
None of the arguments made in the article are specific to New Zealand,
as far as I can see.
It could be that new techniques can reduce the rate of infection from
indoor activities. For instance, using UV light to sterilize indoor
air might be helpful.
* The [London thug department] shelved plans to reform its unit
dedicated to protecting politicians and diplomats [to avoid sexism
and racism] because of "resistant and uncooperative" officers.*
*US schools gave kids laptops during the pandemic. Then they spied on them.*
The laptops were full of nonfree software, so the spying was done by
various companies as well as by the school.
It might make sense for parents to permit a counselor to monitor a
child's digital communications, one that has a medical professional's
commitment to confidentiality and normally cannot tell anyone about
what perse finds in them. However, when the child becomes an
adolescent, at some point that should not be allowed with out per
approval.
If the counselor behaves in a way that earns trust, the student may
choose to continue this, seeing that it is not dangerous and may be
helpful.
A village in India reduced strife by eliminating dowries.
Tory supporters are starting to say that the hardship they are nowimposing on millions
of poor people will be good for them — it will build their character
The people with the worst character are the rich people that lobby to
impose more hardship on those who already suffer it. Perhaps they
could use some character-building too.
A curious series of gaps in evidence about whetherKwamena Ocran
did or did not shoot a gun at a group of plainclothes thugs had the
ultimate effect of protecting them from charges for killing him.
For 150 years, the British Museum has keptEthiopian alter tablets
Regardless of where the tablets end up, it would be a damned shame if
they don't get photographed and studied in the mean time.
US citizens: call on Treasury Secretary Yellen to stop Wall Street
from fueling the climate crisis.
US citizens: call on AT&T and DirectTV to stop funding the right-wing
channel OAN.
US citizens: call on Secretary Haaland to ban the sale of single-use
plastics in national parks.
*Blame the erosion of trade union power, not migrants, for poor
wages.*
Immigrant workers would not help business drive wages down
if those workers belonged to strong unions.
*The Tories have persuaded voters [that "woke" is] a threat worse than
fuel shortages.*
Republicans are using the same approach in the US: using imaginary or
exaggerated bugaboos to distract Americans from the real threats
such as Covid-19, racism, climate mayhem, and starving the poor.
A Singapore journalist says that Singapore's new law, allowing the
government to restrict anyone by calling per a channel for "foreign
interference" based on ungrounded suspicion, and giving the target no
chance to object in court, will make it very hard to operate.
*Halt destruction of nature or risk "dead planet," leading businesses warn.*
Every day, advertising urges us to do the opposite of what climate
defense requires, and tries to reshape our values to make "more
consumption" paramount.
The shortages due to "supply-chain problems" are due to "just-in-time"
processing.
The article mentions other shortages of goods that have the same cause.
In addition, we have seen a similar problem due to reducing the
number of hospital beds to the level that tends to be needed in a
normal year.
That too is an example of optimizing the efficiency in the usual case
by reducing the slack needed to handle unusual cases.
I suspect that the delay in shutting off the
Huntington Beach oil leak
was due to optimizing for the usual case —
the "no leak today" case. Why pay for the extra equipment and staff
just to save a few hours, in some case, in detecting a leak and
shutting it off?
Relatives of Philippinos killed in President Do-Dirty's war on drugs
are suing for damages.
The underwater cables that bring electric power from offshore wind farms
generate magnetic fields that trap one species of crabs.
Engineers will look for ways to protect the crabs.
There is no reason to assume that other species of marine life are
immune to this effect.
New humorous article : the berry torture.
*COVID-19 could nudge minds and societies towards authoritarianism.*
High levels of diseases that are contagious between humans
tend to make societies more authoritarian.
Nobelist journalist Maria Ressa says Facebook is "biased against facts."
I never thought of it that way, but that fits what we know about it.
It does indeed "prioritize the spread of lies laced with anger
and hate over facts."
Explaining Critical Race Theory: Alan Singer explains that it is the
study of how racism influenced the development of the laws,
institutions and structure of the United States and its precursors,
and how those in turn influenced (and often perpetuated) racism
through the present day.
This is a meaningful and important field of study, and shines a useful
light on history. However, it does not include trying to prejudge any
individuals — how we judge people and their conduct is another
matter. I do not feel guilty because I was born white; I don't think
anyone should feel guilty about the conditions and circumstances of
per birth. However, I do include the elimination of racism among the
changes I think are important for society.
Singer's article also explains how right-wing disinformationists have
distorted the idea of Critical Race Theory in order to mislead people
into supporting their extremism. As usual, their statements have a
relationship to the real situation, but it is complex and indirect.
It is a mistake to presume that any specific thing they say is
actually true. So don't try to understand the real situation based on
their statements!
Everyone: call on GM, American Airlines, UPS and other companies not
to fund the campaigns of Republicans that voted to overturn the
election.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Prison Phone Justice Act.
This would stop the price-gouging on prisoners' phone calls.
The University of Cambridge has resorted to gig labor for tutoring students.
A used of Facebook developed a browser add-on to make it easier
to unfollow everyone and make one's newsfeed empty. Users loved it,
until Facebook threatened an absurd lawsuit that he could not afford
to defend.
If the client software for Facebook were free, users could probably make
the newsfeed disappear by modifying that software.
"A used of Facebook" is not a typo. Facebook does not have users,
it has useds.
* Enq has a giant phone bank that floods the IRS help-line with
simultaneous calls, so no one else can get through. Then they sell the
right to take over a mature on-hold call — one that is near to being
answered by a human being — to busy tax professionals.*
US textbook publishers are colluding with universities to bill
students for a subscription to each class's textbooks.
This precludes any chance of avoiding their price gouging.
But there are more important issues at stake than money.
This scheme surely continues the usual injustices of e-books:
DRM,
identifying the user, and a contract promising to act like jerk.
The first article linked to above advocates "open access".
That term is weak — it asks for too little. We should insist on
free/libre educational resources,
because most "open educational resources" are not free/libre.
It also uses the misleading term "intellectual property",
a bogus concept that spreads confusion every time it is used.
A campaign asks the users of non-libre apps to report which ones report
the user's location.
There is no other straightforward way to make a list of those apps,
and their developers can change their behavior at any time.
A nonfree program gives its developers power over its users, which makes
it an injustice.
I hope you don't use any non-libre apps, but if you do, it would be useful
to report on them. You can do that and stop using them too.
Fires this year have burned hundreds of giant sequoia trees.
That would be around .1% to .2% of the total. Given their life spans,
this many per year, continued in the long term, can easily wipe them
out. Along with hundreds of other species.
If civilization collapses, humans will no longer be able to fight the
fires very much, and they will sweep large parts of the American west
unchecked.
*University defends ‘academic freedoms’ after calls to sack professor.*
The sad thing is that a university's defending the freedom to state
ones' opinions in a university should constitute news.
Crown Prince Bone Saw earlier demoted Saud al-Qahtani for his
involvement in organizing the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, but is now
rehabilitating him.
Apparently three years in the cold is long enough punishment.
The developer of the Pegasus spyware package has commanded the program
— for all users, purportedly — to refuse to snoop on phone numbers
of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Israel.
Furthermore, these changes seem to have been imposed on preexisting
users of the program.
That would imply that either the program has a back door, or it has a
SaaSS component.
We might consider that the proper solution is to take further steps in
the same direction, until the program is deactivated for all phone
numbers. The manufacturer surely won't do that, though. So let's put
that question aside and consider this from the standpoint of a user of
Pegasus.
Would you want your country's intelligence agency to be limited in
targets by a company that might obey other governments? Should
governments accept being controlled by companies in this way?
Will the countries that are not thus protected start pressuring the
company to protect them, too? For instance, what will France think of
this? French ministers have been snooped on this way.
People who may be targets for spying can easily arrange to get US or
UK phone numbers. If they do, will the company rescind this
protection? If it can remotely protect certain phones, I suppose it
can likewise remotely unprotect certain phones.
The US and UK have a deal: when the US wants to snoop on an American,
since this would be illegal, the UK snoops on per and sends the US the
information. And vice versa. Is there a tweak in Pegasus to allow
the US and UK to continue doing that?
*Fast track to disaster? Brazil’s Grain Train plan raises fears for Amazon.*
Hong Kong is establishing a new court specifically for repression.
*The Amazon rainforest is losing 10,000 acres a day. Soon it will be
too late.*
"Not 200,000 acres, as the article previously said. But it is still a
very rapid rate of destruction."
US Citizens Urge Biden to move for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Everyone: call on GM, American Airlines, UPS and other companies
not to fund the campaigns of Republicans that voted to overturn the election.
Review of the book Hot Air, by climate scientist Peter Stott,
which describes the battle against global heating denialism.
*When others stay silent about the ills of British capitalism, liars like
[Bogus] Johnson rush in.*
*Dmitry Muratov: the Nobel winner shining light on Russia journalist murders.*
Progressives need to find a clear symbol to represent the purpose of
the Build Back Better bill.
The name "Build Back Better" is itself so vague that it fails to say
why that bill should be passed. But I don't like the term "freedom"
as a description for it, because defining "freedom" as "more options"
is a fundamental mistake.
Perhaps "American Dream bill" would fit, because many of the provisions
would make the former "American dream" a plausible hope for most Americans
once again.
Daniel Foote, US envoy to Haiti who resigned in protest, says that
Haiti is so unstable and dangerous that it is dangerous to deport
people there.
Senator Menendez represents Big Pharma, and intends to torpedo plans to
let Medicare negotiate drug prices.
Other advanced countries have national medical systems which do
negotiate in this way. In the US, the power of plutocracy has blocked this,
and with Menendez's help, may block it again.
However, the underlying problem is the existence of patents that
governments have bound themselves to respect even at the cost of
people's lives.
The argument for medical patents would lose much of its apparent force
if we took the tests for approval of medicines out of the hands
of the drug manufacturers. That way of organizing them makes them
susceptible to corruption.
The funding for these tests should not have
a direct interest in whether the drug is approved or not.
Why the UK's asylum system takes ages to decide and makes horribly
wrong decisions — explained by someone who was employed to interview
people and decide.
Since the situation for deciding benefits for disabled people is
basically the same, I think this also explains why that system
mistreats people so badly.
To start with, they were told to judge cases on the curve — more
refusals than approvals.
Contrast that with what I say to guide the volunteers who look at
sites and recommend articles to me. I may say, "From these sites,
please aim to send me around 5 articles per week — on the average."
But if a recommender who understands what I am likely to find
interesting finds 10 interesting articles one week, and only 2 the
next week, perse should send me 10 or 2, as it may be.
Of course, there's less at stake here, because articles don't have
rights the way human beings do. If a recommender decides not to show
me an article. The article won't suffer pain or injustice.
The Nobel Peace Prize has been given to two journalists who have persisted
against government repression:
Maria Ressa in the Philippines,
and Dmitry Muratov in Russia.
Video evidence shows that thugs in Minneapolis talked about shooting
indiscriminately with their plastic-coated metal bullets, before
actually doing so.
They also dismissed and ridiculed the warning that white-supremacists
from out of state were trying to provoke violence. We now know that
really happened.
Artist Shilpa Gupta still celebrates freedom of speech and poets who
were imprisoned by tyranny.
Although I revile what people wish to say nowadays, I don't believe
censorship can lead to anything but tyranny. Frances Haugen's
explanation of Facebook's damage
shows that the remedy for the harm that
Facebook does is not in censoring specific categories of vicious
things, such as QAnonsense, anti-vax, hatred and "Biden stole the election",
but rather in prohibiting the recommendation algorithm that multiplies
and propagates whatever gets the most response. As long as we allow that to
continue, it will polarize society with irrationality along new dimensions.
140,000 minors in the US lost a parent or caregiver to Covid-19.
Some of those minors were children; others were adolescents. The article
lumps them together, so we can't tell how many were in each age range.
Please do not call adolescents "children";
that tends to infantilize them.
I expect that such loss tends to hurt children more than it hurts
adolescents. I also expect that the parents of adolescents were more
likely to die from Covid-19, because they were likely to be older.
But this is just guesswork.
Like so many other woes, this woe tended to fall more heavily on
marginalized and disprivileged demographic groups. Why so? Some of
those people may have suffered from bias in the medical treatment they
received.
I would guess that many were deterred from seeking
treatment by worries about how they would pay for it. We know how
to eliminate that problem.
Surely the comorbidities that are more common among those who are
poor and/or marginalized also had an effect.
The article linked to first in this note displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism and its effects, or the fight to eliminate racism. That
article is one of the exceptions.
Poland is headed for a confrontation with the EU about whether the EU courts
are superior to Polish courts,
as the EU requires of member countries.
I think the EU have to expel Poland rather than allow it to act as a member
only in the ways that it finds convenient.
The EU has fundamental shortcomings: its lack of democracy
and the Euro banking system which forces countries into depressions
by denying them deficit spending.
However, what the Polish government wants is not improvements, but rather
the chance to make things worse.
2/3 of the European Parliament voted for a resolution calling for stronger
action against tax-dodging via foreign countries.
It is not clear to what extent European countries will follow this.
The EU is not really very democratic,
and its role in adopting real
directives is rather weak. However, a 2/3 majority could at least override
pressures from the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk in Arles, France, on October 14.
Everyone: log out of Facebook on Nov 10.
The organizers of that campaign aim to send a signal of displeasure.
That may do some good, but I suggest that you do more than that. I
suggest that you refuse to be used by Facebook ever again.
You probably already know why we should refuse to be useds of
Facebook, but in case not, here is a list of lots of reasons.
US citizens: call on support the Hollywood non-actor workers' strike.
I hate Hollywood for several reasons including DRM
and unjust copyright laws. Nonetheless I will defend workers from
exploitation.
US citizens: call on Congress to expand federal funds for gratis
meals for schoolchildren.
US citizens: call on Gov. Newsom and President Biden to block new oil
and gas wells and other fossil fuel infrastructure.
US citizens: call on your Senators to block the proposed arms sale to
Salafi Arabia.
US citizens: call on the CFPB to regulate disguised payday loans like
explicit payday loans.
"Election audits" that find no wrongdoing do not convince the fanatics
who are positive that the wrecker really won in 2000. They react by demanding
more investigation.
The "steal" has become an article of faith for them, and "audits"
have become a barbaric ritual that they use to propagate the faith.
The "audit" in Arizona confirmed that Biden did win that state,
and with a slightly bigger margin. It appears that the Republicans
who did the auditing were compelled, somehow, to judge each ballot
by impartial standards.
I predict that if Republicans do more of these "audits" they will try to
eliminate whatever factor had that effect. They will look for ways to
report arbitrary, bogus results.
AT&T decided to start the extreme right-wing network OAN, and has been
its main impetus.
It is noteworthy that the CEO of OAN refers to mainstream media as
"the other side" from Faux News.
(satire) *Watchdog Group Enjoys Rare Night Out After Getting Sitter To
Look After Telecom Industry.*
Republican legislators in Michigan have passed laws to cut the funding
of school districts that require people in schools to wear masks, or
require quarantine of people that have Covid-19.
Republicans control the Michigan legislature is that they rig the
elections using gerrymandering. A majority of the votes are always
Democratic, and a majority of the legislature always Republican. Now
that Republicanism means spreading disease, maybe it will be possible
for Michiganders to overcome the intentional unfairness of the
electoral system.
The natural inclination in responding to Facebook's amplification of
hate and disinformation is to propose to censor specific forms of hate
and disinformation.
However, that is a bad approach, because it would bring the government into
regulating which opinions are acceptable.
I suspect it would also fail to eliminate the opinions it is intended
to eliminate. As long as Facebook continues with its business model
which specifically favors provoking hostility, it will design its
algorithm to promote hatred-provoking postings as much as it can get
away with. It will encourage people to probe the official limits on
how to present hate. They will find ways, just as they have in the
past.
Frances Haugen's testimony confirms my earlier conclusion that the
wrong of Facebook is not in specific nasty statements posted there,
but in the algorithm that promotes statements for being nasty. That
algorithm is what it is because of the fact that spreading nasty
statements is profitable for Facebook.
So let's regulate that algorithm, not the kinds of points people can post
on Facebook.
*House Capitol attack panel subpoenas key planners of "Stop the Steal"
rally [on Jan 6].*
*Police killings of civilians in the US have been undercounted by
more than half in official statistics.*
Australia's court ruled that the trial of Bernard Collaery, the lawyer
who represented Witness K, can be public. They are on trial for
whistleblowing about Australia's spying on East Timor's government
while it was negotiating with Australia about ownership of the sea
bottom between the two companies and its resources, including fossil
fuel.
As for the fossil fuel itself, the world must not allow either
Australia or East Timor to extract it. Civilization's survival
requires it to stay in the ground.
Strange that all coverage of this dispute
Various ways the wrecker tried to pressure officials to undermine the
2020 election last December.
Estimating deaths from Covid-19 from statistics on excess deaths seems
to be more accurate than following various governments' statistics.
It leads to figures from 7 million to 18 millions.
California has prohibited companies from using NDAs to stop employees
from talking about harassment or discrimination at work.
Is this really limited to employees only? What about other workers,
such as temps, gig workers, and other "independent contractors"?
The other unjust kind of NDA is that which covers generally useful
technical information. My experience with MIT's Xerox laser printer
taught me that it is wrong to sign a nondisclosure agreement covering
generally useful technical information such as software. and I
determined never to agree to them. I have never made an exception
for any software or knowledge I have.
Occasionally I have agreed to a nondisclosure agreement for software
knowing that I would never get a copy pf that software, so the
agreement would be void. After all, it's nonfree software, so I do
not want to run it!
US marshalls beat up and whipped prisoners who were handcuffed.
The thugs also knocked down, handcuffed and beat up a middle-aged
woman, a house-sitting friend of the family, whom one of the prisoners
called to for assistance.
The prisoners face grave charges, and arresting them may have been
just. However, gratuitously hitting and whipping them in the process,
and injuring them, was not excusable. Nor was beating up the
house-sitter.
Thousands of homes in Ireland were built with stone that crumbles.
The state, typically plutocratic, is offering the victims who built the homes
only partial compensation. They can't afford the rest.
Covid-19 restrictions could exclude some poor countries from the coming
Cop26 climate conference.
Even new, "low pollution" wood stoves emit enormous amounts of
pollution.
Given the intention to phase out fossil fuels, companies will try to
run the existing facilities with the smallest possible investment,
including investment in keeping them running safely. That will tend
to mean more frequent spills.
The House of Representatives has subpoena'd Ali Alexander, who helped
organize the saboteur-in-chief's rally on Jan 6 and then led people
toward the Capitol.
(satire) *"Can You Help The Scab Get Into The Cereal Factory?" Read
Instructions On Back Of Kellogg's Box.*
(satire) *Creepy Old Man Has Book Filled With The Home Phone Numbers
Of Everyone In Town.*
I wonder how he gets new editions nowadays. I thought they were no
longer published. I can phone directory information to look up a
number, but I'd much rather be able to do so privately in a book.
*Only noisy protest makes politicians take action to avoid climate catastrophe.
From the Suffragettes to the anti-apartheid movement, people taking
disruptive action have been on the right side of history.*
2/3 of the European Parliament voted for a resolution calling for stronger
action against tax-dodging via foreign countries.
It is not clear to what extent European countries will follow this.
The EU is not really very democratic,
and its role in adopting real
directives is rather weak. However, a 2/3 majority could at least override
pressures from the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.
Everyone: Thank President Biden for expanding vaccine
requirements to 100+ million Americans.
Everyone: rebuke companies that support
insurrectionists in Congress.
Now that Interpol has accepted Syria as a member, Assad can use it to
harass and perhaps even seize exiled Syrian dissidents.
A former Uber driver is suing because Uber deactivated his account
when face-recognition software did not recognize his face.
Perhaps he just wasn't himself that day. More likely the software
made a mistake and Uber took it out on him.
The driver is black and alleges that the software has a racially
skewed pattern of error. Such racially skewed errors of face
recognition have been measured.
As long as face recognition systematically fails for certain people,
more accurate face recognition would avoid harming them. However, if
face recognition gets more accurate and recognizes blacks as
accurately as it does whites, that will not make face recognition
acceptable. The harm to human rights caused by accurately tracking
everyone will get worse.
South Dakota has made itself a place to park hidden wealth, rivaling
Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
Merck Sells Federally Financed Covid Pill to U.S. for 40 Times What It Costs
to Make.
This is the result of the Bayh-Dole Act, which allowed companies and
universities to have monopolies (patents and other kinds) over work
they did under federal contracts. Its harmful effects are seen in the
software field, too.
The supposed reason was to encourage "technology transfer" to
manufacturers, but the harmful effects of that monopoly power were not
considered.
Women in Kabul continue to defy the Taliban by working, and even
protesting.
Global heating effects have caused the Earth to reflect .5% less light
back into space, for the past 3 years.
That excess light may be absorbed by the Earth. Or it might be
reemitted in another frequency range that would not have been measured
by the technique used here.
*Instagram promoted pages glorifying eating disorders to teen accounts.*
After an undersea oil pipeline near Los Angeles started leaking oil,
there was an unexplained 12-hour delay before the owner started
efforts to keep the oil out of nearby wildlife areas.
One way or another, the company did not give sufficient attention
to the matter of leaks.
The company has had many safety violations: over a hundred in 11
years.
It was fined for them, but the fines do not seem to have convinced
the company to do adequate maintenance. Not maintenance adequate to
prevent big leaks, that is.
The general standard of discipline for pipeline maintenance is
inadequate. Some other pipelines have a history of repeated
violations.
What is clear is that the standard pipeline owners are expected to
meet is too low. It assumes that a leak once in a while is ok.
Regulators will shut down a pipeline until a specific flaw is fixed,
but they won't make management learn to proactively detect and fix
problems before inspectors see it.
If the owner leaves it to inspectors to inform it about small
problems, it is effectively leaving it to the world press to inform it
of a disastrous leak. If a pipeline has problems every month that the
company doesn't detect first, its chance of a spectacular problem is
much too high.
Does anyone know how to do maintenance to a level that would assure no
significant oil leaks? Do oil pipelines need to be double, one pipe
inside another, like the double hulls of some tankers? If they were
checked and maintained as carefully as the pipes inside a submarine,
would that be sufficient?
It will take decades for the coastal ecosystems to recover, and they
may not come back the same.
The Philippine government has investigated Do-Dirty's killer thugs
and has found around 150 who it may charge with murder.
200 members of the Oath Keepers identified themselves to the
organization as cops or retired cops.
A black sports star calls on US blacks to do the rational thing: get
vaccinated, to protect themselves and others.
*The drowning man doesn’t ask if a racist made the life preserver
keeping him afloat, only that it works to save his life.*
(satire) *Patriotic Billionaire Only Invests In American-Made Tax Havens.*
It turns out that the London thug recently convicted of raping and
murdering a woman was accused, six years ago, of driving a car while
wearing nothing below the waist. If he did so, does that matter?
As far as I can see, lack of pants while driving has no significance
at all. People a few feet away form the car generally cannot see the
absence of pants. To call this "exposure" is exaggeration of the
facts.
His misogynist communications may well be connected with his crime,
but let's be careful not to demonize every unusual thing he did in
connection with sex. You can't tell that someone will rape or murder
based on quirks, and we risk oppressing people if we suppose you can.
Frances Haugen accused Facebook of "fanning ethnic violence" in Ethiopia.
(satire) *Imran Khan Explains Money Saved In Offshore Tax Haven Was To
Buy Pakistani People A Big Present.*
(satire) *Mark Zuckerberg Vows Employees Responsible For Facebook
Outage Will Be Bullied To Suicide.*
US officials are trying to conceal how the US tortured Abu Zubaydah,
and the Supreme Court will decide the case.
Enbridge, the company building the Line 3 pipeline, paid thugs in
Minnesota over 2 million dollars to crush protests against its construction --
often in
especially thuggish ways.
*Utilities cut power to US customers while taking huge Covid tax credits.*
The customers whose electricity was cut off were broke because their income
had disappeared.
The Scotland thug department has been convicted of pervasive sexual
harassment against females.
The wrecker has told his former officials and advisors to refuse to testify
in the congressional investigation of the Jan 6 insurrection.
Fossil fuel subsidies, world-wide, amounted to 6 trillion dollars in 2020.
This includes the damage done by heat waves, floods, and fires, and
the harm done to human health, because they are not held responsible
to pay for that. These are not directly "subsidies", but letting them off
the hook for the damages is a form of subsidy.
*Fossil fuel industry gets subsidies of $11m a minute, IMF finds.*
Even in Singapore, people are bothered by an increase in the already-pervasive
surveillance.
Singapore's government says the robots will not try to identify people
during the trial of these robots. Perhaps it's true, but so what?
I am in favor of reminding people to keep their distance and wear masks.
Identifying them is another matter — it moves towards a society in which
unsurveilled activity is impossible.
Global heating disasters will cost Australia an enormous amount,
estimated at 73 billion dollars (Australian dollars, I am guessing)
per year by 2060, even in the scenario where we curb global heating.
Since global heating often goes faster than was predicted, we should
take that as a lower bound.
Legal effects of cultural wrinkles exclude the property of some black
families in the US from the aid that might repair flooded their
houses.
This is a short-term issue, because most of those houses cannot be
kept operational in the long term. As floods get worse, eventually
the house will succumb.
*Occupy Wall Street swept the world and achieved a lot, even if it may not
feel like it.*
I felt sympathy with Occupy Wall Street, but was disappointed that it
didn't lead to campaigns of a form that I could effectively support.
To shut down the international system of wealth-hiding and tax evasion
would not be complex.
The difficult part is not the writing of new laws, but to get them adopted.
I usually group lawful tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion together
under the term "tax dodging" because, morally and structurally, they
are very similar. They often function through the same intermediary
countries.
The Pandora Papers show the inaequacy of the EU's action against countries
that aid in disguising property.
Since 2019, Instacart has reorganizde how it computes workers' pay, to
pay them much less. Now the workers ask users to stop dealing with
the company and delete its app.
I support their demands, as far as that goes -- but in addition to how the
company treats its workers, we must look at how it treats its customers.
It requires them to run nonfree software! And it collects personal data
about them and puts that in a database!
I won't let anyone do that to me. Instead, I go to the store, pick up
what I want, and pay cash.
An investigation of the corrupter's attempt to alter Georgia's
election results could result in criminal charges against him.
The Pandora papers show, *Money from "world’s biggest bribe
scandal" invested in UK property.*
*Stop Calling the [US] Military Budget a "Defense" Budget.*
Burma has jailed 100 journalists since the coup. As a result, we get very
little news about what is happening there now.
*Can we move our forests in time to save them?*
With most regions becoming too dry or too wet, as well as hotter,
there is no reason to assume there is any place an existing forest
ecosystem can go to.
Senator Graham was booed for suggesting to Republicans that they
merely think about getting vaccinated.
Anti-vax has become their core ideology.
*Access to the Tory party is being bought by a new class of tycoon
funders.* The Pandora Papers show how British billionaires use the
British government against Britain.
Britain shows that it's possible to be a banana republic without
actually being a republic.
The G7 tax plan to tax multinational companies taxes them far too
little.
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk in Claret, France, on October 16.
Boston area: come to the rally for Julian Assange on Oct 11 from 4pm to 5:30pm in
Boston Common, at the top of the main entrance to Park Street Station.
The leaked "Pandora papers" show how many rich people have set up
international structures of shell companies to disguise what property
they own.
For instance, the leaks show that King Abdullah of Jordan has
disguised his owning properties, in various countries, worth 100
million dollars.
These article make a moral assumption which we should reject:
The invalid assumption is to equate legality with moral legitimacy.
That equation abdicates all moral judgment to the legislature of
whichever country has jurisdiction.
This is what plutocrats want us to assume. If we accept it, then
when they have set up tax laws to assess them little tax, we will
conclude it is right for them to pay little tax. This balderdash
helps plutocrats maintain their dominion, at the expense of everyone
else.
King Abdullah is a slightly unusual case because, in Jordan, he is a
monarch, more powerful than a plutocrat. Internationally, though, he
is a plutocrat like any other. So this applies to him too.
In the US, the tax on a building is charged by local government.
Disguising the owner's identity won't avoid that tax. But if selling
the building brings in a profit, the owner may avoid paying taxes on
that capital gain by not reporting it.
Disguising the "beneficial owner" of a business can enable
the owner to dodge taxes on the income of the business.
What the Texas abortion-restriction law does to women in Texas that
need an abortion.
Brazilians living in penury search for food in a heap of animal carcasses.
This reflects the deep poverty that has struck Brazil.
This was partly caused by Covid-19, and the government could not have
prevented that. But I expect that the Workers' Party would have done
a better job of protecting the poor from hunger.
The Tories want to put climate defense protesters in prison for 6 months
for blocking highways.
This is, apparently, higher priority than insulating millions of
houses, which is the highly efficient way of reducing greenhouse
emissions that the protesters demand.
When floods block highways, will the Tories put the flood waters in
prison? If a flood continues for a week, they could sentence the
water to 4 years.
The Whitney Plantation in Louisiana is a museum of what life was like for
the slaves on plantations.
San Jose, California, has apologized for acts of racism against
Chinese-Americans, which included burning down the whole of Chinatown
where they lived.
California has passed a law to decertify thugs convicted of serious
crimes, so that they can't jump over to another thug department
elsewhere in the state.
A scientific experiment demonstrates hiring bias against minority
racial groups in the UK.
All the applicants sent the same résumé, so there was no reason to
treat them differently except bias.
The amount of bias has not decreased since the 1960s.
Female cops in London say the male cops hit them with persistent
sexism, and support each other in doing so.
Mobs of Hinduismists in the state of Chhattisgarh, India, are accusing
Christians of forcing Hindus to convert to Christianity, and using
that as an excuse for violent repression of Christians.
There have been times and places where Christians forced people to
convert. This happened in Spain in 1492 and after: the Spanish
monarchy forced all Jews and Muslims to become Christians. But it is
absurd to imagine that Indian Christians would try to do this today,
since they are a minority surrounded by millions of Hindus. This is
typical right-wing false accusation.
The real threat to religious freedom in Chhattisgarh is from the state
law that requires state approval for changing your religion. I expect
that this was passed for repression against Dalits
that want to become Buddhist,
following Dr. Ambedkar.
Abu Zubaydah, prisoner in Guantanamo, is suing to demand testimony of
agents that tortured him, to prove that the US had a torture site in
Poland.
Arguing that the police departments of today are fundamentally bad and
harmful.
I find that plausible, but that doesn't necessarily mean that "no
police" would be better. More likely, a gang would take over the role
of "keeping order", whatever order it prefers.
To replace today's thug departments with something better, we need to have
a clear idea to make a replacement that is indeed better.
*In plain sight, Boris Johnson is rigging the system to stay in power.*
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the National Security Reforms
and Accountability Act.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
The Tories continue to dump the costs of replacing flammable cladding
— and fire prevention in the meantime — on many apartment buildings
on the residents, who can never pay it.
They rescued the residents of tall buildings but stubbornly refuse to
rescue shorter buildings. I guess they feel a need to avoid giving
people the expectation that the government will help them in
adversity.
Global heating effects will hasten the decay of America's dilapidated
schools, and make classrooms too hot for children to study in.
Many schools already dismiss class when it gets to hot. By 2025,
26,000 schools will need to install or upgrade air conditioning.
Republicans will surely oppose funding for this.
Research into use of Twitter, and mathematical modeling, show that its
structural tendency is to encourage polarization and formation of camps
that are hostile to each other.
*Coffee bean price spike just a taste of what’s to come with [climate mayhem].*
The "Council for National Policy" secretly brings together Republican
officials with rich right-wing donors and leaders of hate groups.
Studying the possible side effects of geoengineering designed to reduce
incoming sunlight.
Uyghurs report on the cameras in their homes and prison cells.
These cameras now do face recognition and more general ethnic group
recognition.
Any system that tracks people's movements is prepositioned repression
equipment, waiting only for a government to dare to turn it on.
China lends millions of dollars to non-state entities in many non-rich
countries, to conceal the loans from the World Bank. 42 countries now
owe more than 10% of GDP to China in this hidden way.
Israel has kept Mohammad El Halabi in jail for five years without trial.
Israel accuses him of giving aid money to Hamas, but it should either give
him a fair trial or let him go.
*Belarusian [repression] forces [arrest] 50 people over social media
posts on Minsk shooting: rights group.* The shooting killed a
repression officer and someone they say "resisted" repression
officers.
The mayor of Riace was admired for his efforts to integrate immigrants
and keep the town from fading away; but now they have been construed
as aiding illegal immigration and he has been sentenced to prison.
Republican's phony "audit" of Arizona votes failed in its ostensible
goal, but it achieved two things: it spread distrust for official
election results, and it will undermine real audits and recounts in
the future.
Sooner or later they will hold another "audit" and lie about what they find.
As Texas demographics swing Democratic, Republicans are redrawing the districts
to retain control with a minority of votes.
Apple, Amazon, Disney, Google and Microsoft give support to right-wing
organizations that lobby against the Build Back Better act. Some want
to make the poor poorer; some aim to continue global heating at full
speed.
Other companies that support these groups include medical companies
AstraZeneca, Bayer, Johnson&Johnson, plus Deloitte, Dow, Exxon, FedEx,
Goodyear, Intuit, United Airlines, and Verizon.
Mergers, deregulation and "free trade" made the economy vulnerable to
today's supply-chain problems and shortages.
US citizens: call on Congress to eliminate the debt ceiling.
All it does is give Republicans a hostage once in a while.
US citizens: call on various big US companies to stop donating to
insurrectionists in Congress.
US citizens: sign this letter calling on Treasury Secretary Yellen
to dial down investments in fossil fuels.
US citizens: call on big US banks to stop funding climate disaster.
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk in Montpellier, France, on October 22.
YouTube blocked two RT TV channels for posting anti-vax propaganda.
In return, Russia threatened to block YouTube entirely, and then
threatened to block German TV channels unrelated to Google
unless YouTube relents.
The first threat can be thought of as "retaliation in kind."
The second threat is nothing like that — it is more like
hostage-taking.
Putin has concluded that giant tech companies will surrender to any
demand whatsoever rather than lose a big market. That seems to be
true if the market is China. Can Putin get this most-favored-market
status too?
(satire) *Scientists Unlock 47 New Editable Genes After Purchasing
CRISPR Expansion Pack.*
*Settlement forces Amazon to tell workers they can't be fired for
organizing.*
*Poor countries must not be forced to take on debt to tackle climate crisis.*
It all comes down to whether we can overcome the power of the
plutocrats who seek to own the world regardless of the harm this does to
the rest of the world.
*Yanis Varoufakis: Angela Merkel Was Bad for Europe and the World.*
I don't think she was solely responsible for the Euro zone decisions
that drove Greece into suffering, but she surely helped.
The Tories insist that everyone working in a care home (US: nursing
home) be vaccinated by November 11, while critics say it will be hard
for those workers to get vaccinated that soon.
Right-wingers do not seem to appreciate how hard it is for low-paid workers
to make arrangements for medical appointments around their work schedules,
which often they cannot control or even know in advance.
There seems to be an obvious win-win solution — to bring vaccination
teams to these institutions and vaccinate the workers there. Why
don't Tories do this?
Is it a basic preference to punish the non-rich rather than help them?
*Drier heat waves threaten crops in Iowa.*
Global heating threatens agriculture in many parts of the US, in
different ways. We hear about some of the local threats occasionally,
but the overall danger is more than what we hear.
As workers in advanced countries reject low-paid grueling work, businesses seek
to replace them with robots rather than give them a raise.
We still face the question of how to give the people who can't earn
more than a pittance a way to live a decent life, instead of starving
on the street. Meanwhile, climate mayhem threatens crop failures and
empty seas
— and thus much higher food prices.
Other forms of resource depletion and pollution threaten too.
Ralph Nader presents a long list of evils which get bipartisan support
from the Democratic and Republican parties.
We should acknowledge and applaud the progressive Democrats that
challenge many of these policies.
The UK government warned Britons who have called for sanctions against
Hong Kong's government that Hong Kong might accuse them of violating
the new "national security law" and have them extradited from various
other countries they might visit.
Several countries have suspended or cancelled extradition agreements
with Hong Kong.
Wikipedia lists the countries that have such agreements with Hong Kong.
Normally, extradition treaties are conditioned on "dual criminality":
country C won't extradite anyone for an act unless that act is a crime
according to the laws of country C. What the Hong Kong "national
security law" prohibits, disloyalty to Hong Kong, is surely not a
crime according to the laws of countries such as Portugal, nor surely
India or Indonesia. Does that mean this danger is not real?
Governments that regularly trash human rights, such as Malaysia and
Singapore, might not respect the human rights stated in their laws and
treaties. But India and Indonesia are getting involved in anti-China
alliances, and if they have a political decision to make about critics
of China's oppression, will surely seek opportunities to frustrate
China.
Can anyone find out more about this issue?
*Mass protests in Brazil call for Bolsonaro's impeachment.*
AI language models often respond to embarrassing questions with falsehoods.
Right-wing Democrats in Congress tried to sabotage the House plan to
insist on passing the Build Back Better welfare bill before
considering the badly compromised infrastructure bill. But
progressive Democrats stood firm and blocked this.
Those right-wing Democrats could kill the bill straight out — but they would
draw lots of ire, and it would harm their chances of reelection. We have to
hope they decide not to do that.
Biden proposes a system to make rich people report all the income that they
receive through bank accounts.
This would not fix the problem of tax evasion by rich people that get
the income in other countries and hide it,
nor that of tax dodging by
corporations that shift the profit to countries which charge no tax on
it.
"Toxic positivity" says that if anything goes wrong for you, it was because
you did not have a positive enough mindset.
So have faith in a good future,
or whatever bad things happen to you will be your own fault.
This is reportedly one of the ingredients of Covid-19 denialism, too.
A UK court investigation has ruled that the use of undercover thugs to
infiltrate protest groups by forming sexual relationships with the
sincere participants violated their rights in many ways, and was
planned to do so.
Best of all, it concluded there was no justification for investigating
those nonviolent campaigns at all.
US citizens: call on Biden to remake the Postal Governing Board and
fire Louis Dejoy.
Two Colorado thugs attacked a man for not obeying their commands.
They knocked him down, tased him, and put him in jail for 4 months,
while he only asking "Why this happen?" He is deaf.
This illustrates the pattern that thugs are willing to get violent
very quickly, not checking for misunderstandings.
Crackers attack school computer systems to steal students' personal
identification data, so as to use it for financial fraud.
How about if schools were not allowed to ask for such data from students?
Indeed, why do they collect it nowadays? What do they use it for? Do they
use it to give it to companies that should not get it either?
The US government will raise the price of flood insurance to match increased
flood risk.
Subsidizing flood insurance encourages people to live in houses that
are likely to flood. After each flood, people will repair them and
continue living there. For society, having houses in those places is
repeated wasteful expense.
Once flooding becomes likely, it would be better for society to rescue
the homeowners by buying the flooded houses for what they would have
been worth in the absence of flood danger, and hold that land to
ensure no house is built there again.
The London thug department has hardly bothered to keep violent
misogynists out.
Two other thugs that joined the murdered, Couzens, in racist and misogynist
conversations are being investigated but continue working.
We should not imprison people for their opinions, but if cops
are racist or misogynist, they are unfit for their jobs.
The London thug department has warned women to distrust any
single non-uniformed individual that claims to be arresting them.
For the reasons described in the article, it will be difficult to
follow this advice. People will be afraid of prosecution for
"resisting arrest." Would you have confidence that citing this
announcement would get you cleared instantly of such charges? I would
not.
Moreover, cops can't do their legitimate job if people distrust them.
They have to win trust — and not just from women, but also from
blacks that expect to be harassed frequently by thugs that are not
insane, merely racist.
(satire) *Ways To Apologize Without Saying Sorry.*
Former right-wing French president Sarkozy has been convicted of
campaign funding violations.
He was famous for launching prosecutions against people who spoke
sharply about him, including someone who said, "Sarkozy, I see you!"
to criticize a state action that resulted from Sarkozy's decision, and
someone who repeated to Sarkozy an insulting phrase that he had said
to a member of the public.
Bristol University fired Professor David Miller for what it calls
"antisemitism". He says that it was criticism of Zionism and its
propaganda.
I can't judge from the limited quotes in the article whether his statements
include anti-semitism or are limited to politics.
The US must stop thinking of its wars as sacred.
A London thug arrested a female stranger for no reason other than so
he could rape her and kill her. This shocking incident has threads
running to other, more frequent forms of injustice to women.
Lots of thugs engage in violence towards women.
Calling for a thorough investigation of this.
Putin is seeking to imprison editor and investigator Roman
Dobrokhotov, who works with Bellingcat.
*More than half of killings [by official thugs] are mislabelled or not
reported, study finds.*
Killings of blacks and hispanics are more likely not to be properly
reported.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
The Oath Keepers' association with attacking the Capitol was an
effective recruiting tool.
We saw this a year ago as the corrupter's supporters became
increasingly violent in their attacks on Democrats. The more
violent they got, the more they excited people who wanted violence.
How to make the infrastructure and aid bill combo better
by getting rid of plutocratist spending.
(satire) *‘Bon Appétit’ Publishes Blank Issue After Nothing Sounded
Good.*
*The U.S. needs to make its asylum policy clear. It needs to define who
it will allow to seek asylum and apply that standard without
discrimination.*
If we do this, we should not expect the same results for Haiti and
Afghanistan, because there objective differences between the two
situations.
Afghanistan has been taken over by a government that seems to be
trying to kill people for having worked with the US. That gives many
Afghans a claim for asylum under international treaties. Although
many Haitians have suffered greatly, and part of the cause is due to
US wrongdoing,
they are not facing murder or torture if they remain in Haiti.
The US should do something to help the destitute people of Haiti, but
giving some of them asylum is not the only way, or necessarily the
best way. Perhaps aid to poor people in Haiti would do a better job.
US citizens: call on Democratic leadership to strip the $25 billion
taxpayer giveaway to Big Oil from the infrastructure bill.
Ecuadorians' lawyer against Chevron, Steven Donziger, has been
sentenced to 6 months in prison for refusing to give Chevron all his
confidential communication with his clients.
This is part of Chevron's long scheme to avoid paying its fine of ten billion
dollars for poisoning part of Ecuador.
Australia has driven the regent honeyeater almost to extinction, and
it is pushing hard to finish the job.
Arizona Democrats are very angry with Senator Sinema and are threatening
to vote her out.
*EPA Officials Exposed Whistleblowers Three Minutes After Receiving
Confidential Complaint.*
The corruption seems to be very deep.
Local opposition has defeated construction of the Penneast fracked-gas
pipeline from Pennsylvania to New Jersey.
Everyone: call on Facebook to treat a person's political campaign ads
as if they came from that person.
*Section 51, part 6 of the Tennessee law makes lesson plans illegal if
students "feel discomfort, guilt, or anguish."*
Children have no reason to feel personally guilty about events that
happened before they were born. But they might well feel discomfort
and even anguish when they read about American slavery, Jim Crow, the
Vietnam War, the conquest and occupaton of Iraq, the Holocaust, the
Great Depression, or the Chinese cultural revolution. Indeed, if the
lesson is clear, and students grasp what anguish people suffered
during those events, they will surely feel some anguish in sympathy.
The law, if applied generally, would be absurd. But I don't think it
is meant to be applied generally. I suspect it is meant to be applied
selectively in a racist way.
Where is the outrage over the civil war in Ethiopia?
In my case, it is stymied by my lack of understanding
of what's happening.
The information I've seen in the press is fragmentary. I don't
understand what's occurring, nor why, nor the actions and motivations
of the belligerents. Is Ethiopia intentionally starving Tigray? Is
Eritrea doing so? Are world powers doing so?
Did Ethiopia really more or less occupy Tigray, or was that Ethiopia's
lie? If it was true, how did Tigray bounce back from near total
defeat and start attacking other regions? If Tigray is now militarily
successful, how come its army cannot open a channel for food aid to
flow?
In the past, we would have seen reports from foreign correspondents
covering the events. Are there any now? If so, where can we see
their reporting?
Now Ethiopia has expelled UN aid officials.
The article does not clearly state the motive for expelling them.
Is this because there is no known reason? Or does the article refrain
from stating it?
19 of the top 20 Facebook pages for American Christians are run by Eastern
European troll farms, according to a Facebook internal investigation.
What this amounts to is that the troll farms have developed channels
of mass influence in the US -- for elections, for instance. Most of
the time, they will imitate what their target Christians would say.
On occasions, they say what some powerful entity tells them to say.
*Corporate Lobbyists Are Going to War Against the Build Back Better Plan.*
Rep Ro Khanna: Congress should end the special tax deductions for
fossil fuels.
Some propose to use a carbon tax instead to raise tax revenue. I am
in favor of a carbon tax, but not as a way to raise tax revenue. The
way to raise revenue is to end the special tax deductions. The income
from the carbon tax should be redistributed to people with low incomes
so that the carbon tax does not ruin them.
(satire) *WASHINGTON—In a maneuver that experts suggest could represent a
significant setback for the legislative ambitions of Democrats, the GOP
reportedly stalled an upcoming government funding bill Tuesday by
detonating fifty tons of C-4 explosives inside the Capitol building.*
The UK accuses the biggest social media of advertising financial scams.
*Progressives Warn Democrats Against Means-Testing Reconciliation Bill
[Build Back Better] to Death.*
The US talked about the rights of Afghan women when that was useful as
a justification for war, but has paid little attention to what Afghan
women said about the issue. Here's a group that is trying to work with
Afghan women in defending their rights.
Ukraine is taking an interesting approach to Putin's seizure of the
Crimea: treating residents of Crimea as Ukrainian citizens and giving
them various sorts of aid.
The Taliban arrested journalists who covered women's protests in
Afghanistan. One of them has not been heard from for a month.
Chinese women are very worried that China will restrict abortions
to force them to have babies.
In China, as in many other parts of the world, life for people born
now is going to get very hard in a few decades. People in North China
will have to deal with fatal weather.
Much of South China, a large region around the Yangtze River, will
face sea level rise.
Coping with the inconvenience of a falling population will be easy
by comparison.
Culture is for appropriating. But we still see people condeming the failure
to maintain the racial purity of cultural practices.
Kwame Anthony Appiah demolished the condemnation of "cultural
appropriation",
and said it better than I could say it. He also explains the correct
understanding of certain situations where people perceive offense and
conceptualize the issue as "cultural appropriation."
I did not appropriate this position from him -- I'm proud to have
thought of it independently. But if I had learned it from him, I'd be
grateful.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act.
US citizens: call on the Federal Reserve to break up Wells Fargo.
Specifically, to split its banking activities from its investment activities.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter at 1-888-516-5820 and say
to pass the Build Back Better Act, the bill to spend 350 billion a year
on aid and jobs for non-wealthy Americans.
If you call, please spread the word!
New York City prosecutors and judges work hard to generate reasons to
demand bail, even from people who are very likely to return to court
for trial. This means putting them in Rikers Island jail, which is
a dangerous place to be.
If a person is homeless, that is an indication of bad government. If
a homeless person needs to steal blankets, that is an indication of
even worse government.
A chain of charter schools tells students and teachers to put a lot of time
into entering their feelings (and life stories) into a computer system
connected with Facebook.
I suspect that Facebook uses this to learn general patterns of associations
so that it can improve its deductions about all the useds of Facebook.
Students already habituated to trusting untrustworthy companies with
sensitive information are easily induced to hand in more.
The CIA investigated kidnapping or assassinating Julian Assange in 2017.
It even got legislative approval for a new concept, "non-state hostile
intelligence service," which it used to justify an operation of
"offensive counterintelligence."
The wrecker seems to have hated him intensely.
Contrasting the diffuse tyranny of an oligarchy with the personal
tyranny of an autocrat, and how that relates to America today.
I disagree with the criticism of the "Liberal class". If by Liberal
the author means defense of human rights, that is a principle, not a
class. Human rights are vital for everyone, except an autocrat and
per servants.
If he refers to the broader political movement that we called Liberal,
which included government aid for the poor, civil rights and ending
racial segregation, women's rights and equality, environmental
protection, and peace, people now use "Progressive" to refer to more
or less the same thing.
It is only natural that questions arise of how far to go in fighting
fire with fire, and at what point we must refuse to match the enemy in
arson.
The US should eliminate the debt ceiling, which serves no good purpose
but provides plutocratists with an opportunity for bullying.
*EU lawmakers vote to prolong fossil fuel gas subsidies until 2027.*
Note how the use of hydrogen is being treated as "low emissions", even
if it is made the cheap way by burning fossil fuel. Likewise,
"biofuels" are treated as "low emissions" even if they are made from
crops that require fertilizers and pesticides, and wood chips are
treated as "low emissions" even if made from trees cut in another
continent. The fallacy of these decisions is widely reported, but
politicians disregard it.
Greta Thunberg says that world leaders are giving little more than lip service to the need to cut greenhouse emissions.
Ken Loach condemns the Labour Party's purges of Corbyn's supporters,
and those (including himself) who took a stand against purges.
Meanwhile, antisemitism in the party is no longer treated as a big
concern, now that Jewish Corbynites are the targets. This confirms
that it was exaggerated as an excuse.
I suppose the plutocrats don't care whether Labour is tamed or crippled,
as long as it can't won't make trouble for them.
Loach calls on those who have been driven out of Labour to start a new
party.
Biden continues the bully's excuse for denying people the right to come to the US border and ask for asylum.
The excuse is that Covid-19 is a medical emergency, and any immigrant
who has Covid-19 is a threat because perse might be infected. We can
imagine situations where that would be a valid position, but not at
the border of Republican dominated Texas. Border-crossers are hardly
significant, as a source of Covid-19 in Texas, compared with
Republican US citizens.
We can understand why the bully did this: it offered him a way to use
a scapegoat for distraction. But unless Biden is no better, he should stop
using the excuse.
George Monbiot: it makes no sense to think of climate, biodiversity
loss, pollution, soil loss, and resource overuse as unrelated issues,
since they drive each other and may even potentiate each other.
He argues that the only way to avoid ruining the ecosphere is to
reduce economic activity.
The referendum vote to seize some housing in Berlin could inspire
important changes.
However, what is crucial is to eliminate the obstacles to building denser
housing near public transit.
Some argue that eliminating precarious, unpredictable work schedules
would be more effective than increasing the minimum wage.
Why argue about it — let's do both!
*Nigerians could see justice over Shell oil spills after six decades.*
Sewage and fertilizer runoff from farms seems to be responsible for
the enormous increase in the area of Sargasso Sea seaweed.
Chinese-language newspapers in Australia use translators in China to
translate Australian news stories into English, and they translate in
accord with China's censorship rules.
It would be wrong to try to fix this by ordering those newspapers how
to do their translation. But it would be legitimate for Australia to
require newspapers that publish in foreign languages to state
prominently either that all the translators live in Australia, or that
they do not.
US citizens: call on Biden to shut down the Line 3 pipeline
and stop local thugs from using "pain compliance" against protesters
US citizens: call on the Senate to eliminate the filibuster
and pass the Freedom to Vote Act.
A study of around 270,000 Americans after they had Covid-19 found that
37% of them had a symptom over three months later.
Some fraction of them may have developed the symptom from some other
cause by coincidence, or already had it before catching Covid-19.
It may be hard to distinguish those cases.
Kylie Broderick, teaching assistant at the University of North
Carolina, has published criticism of Israel's treatment of
Palestinians. An Israeli diplomat, and a US congresscritter, both
pressured the university to remove her from teaching.
The diplomat cites the IHRA definition of "antisemitism",
which was not designed for judging individuals or their views,
to erroneously
construe Broderick's criticism of government policy as antisemitism.
A hundred Mayan children were massacred in 1988 by the Guatemalan army.
A survivor reported the crime this year and the government planned to
exhume their skeletons, but unidentified "protesters" came in and
blocked the action.
The protesters may be some of the soldiers who killed them, or their
relatives or associates.
*Cutting methane should be a key Cop26 aim, research suggests.*
New Zealand made it a crime to plan or prepare for a terrorist act.
I wonder whether the law criminalizes impossible fantasies of
terrorism — the sort of imaginary danger thing that the FBI loves to
protect Americans from.
However, this law seems to be less bad than the UK's law
criminalizing possession of information "likely to be useful for
terrorism,"
as in the recent case of someone who was convicted in Britain of
possessing material presenting hateful opinions, plus a page about how
to make a bomb.
Convicting people for having copies of some publication, no matter what
publication that might be, is repression.
The bomb page could be useful for terrorism, but just having it
doesn't prove he was planning to make a bomb. I think the New Zealand
law would require something to show that the accused was specifically
considering using them for a terrorist act, and would not in practice
criminalize mere possessing copies of publications.
However, there remains some danger of unjust convictions because
conclusions about intentions are hard to demonstrate conclusively. It
will be easy to convict someone based on stereotypes about what people
in per demographic group are assumed to want to do.
Violence against US medical workers is increasing in states dominated
by Republican anti-vaxxers. So hospitals are taking various steps
to protect them.
A survey of English students and school staff who had Covid-19 found
high levels of continuing symptoms and substantial levels of
continuing disability.
Artificial limits on housing density in major cities make housing
expensive.
It's obvious how this hurts the non-rich who live there. This
article explains unobvious consequences that harm many aspects
of life and business.
There are a few points I disagree with. I don't think innovation is
such a good thing, now that businesses choose which innovations to
foist on their customers. And I think a lower birth rate is
beneficial.
Nonetheless, there are so many harmful effects that I think the overall
conclusion is valid.
Explaining the financial arrangements that create shortages in all sorts
of medical products in the US.
Long ago, hospitals set up purchasing collectives; then in 1987
Congress legalized kickbacks for them.
Pelosi promised that the House would not pass the reduced "bipartisan"
infrastructure bill unless it first passed the budget reconciliation
welfare bill.
Yet she is now yielding to plutocratist Democrats in
the House who want to separate them (and thus kill the latter one).
But progressive representatives refuse to let that happen.
*Democrat's Inept Messaging: It's Not a $3.5 Trillion Bill But $350 Billion a
Year.*
The fashion for stating the amount of money that a program or law
would control, spend, collect, or whatever, in terms of multiple years
always exaggerates, and it always interferes with comparing one
sum with another. Good journalism calls for normalizing those figures
to a per-year basis.
Rebuking Senator Manchin's rejection of poor West Virginians with a protest
at his boat in Washington DC.
I expected to find a link to a video showing the boat, but I don't
see one in the article. Have the protesters posted a video in a place
it could be accessed without running nonfree Javascript code? If so,
I would like to link to it.
In or near Boston: rally on Saturday Oct 2 to defend abortion rights.
An supporter that Starmer recruited to help him "unite the Labour party"
denounces Starmer's treachery
and explains precisely how it will maintain
plutocratist domination of the party.
The government of Alberta promised to eliminate Covid-19 precautions
and give everyone a delightful summer. Instead they spread disease
and filled the hospitals.
Drought could shut down hydroelectric power from Lake Powell and Lake
Mead. This would be a big loss in US non-fossil-fuel generating capacity.
As the years go by, this will become more and more likely.
This is an example of the sort of positive feedbacks that can
lead to global heating worse than models have predicted.
Arguments that humanity does not need to collect metals from the ocean
bottom and could do ok banning that process.
The hard part is how to get Nauru to cancel its demand to permit this.
Meat processing in Europe uses subcontracted workers so as to pay
them scraps and subject them to offal working conditions.
Since meat production harms the Earth's climate,
and eating a lot of meat
endangers a person's health,
it would be good for meat to get more expensive.
*Unions are calling for a Europe-wide ban on the use of subcontracted
workers.*
Hooray! This should not be limited to meat packing. Consider Amazon
warehouses, cleaning of businesses, delivery work, and many other fields.
Subcontracting's reason for existence is to permit mistreating workers,
so let's limit it to small amounts of work, for which full time workers
are not feasible.
People urinating in a river after the Glastonbury music festival put
so much cocaine into the water that it endangers the eels that live
there.
US citizens: support the Fossil Free Finance act.
* El Salvador women march against abortion laws amid planned Latin
America-wide protests.*
If you send me a URL for a site that states the time and place of
future protests (either for one country or for Latin America
generally), and it functions adequately without running nonfree JS
code, I will link to them.
"Functions adequately" means you can find the list of planned future
protests in your country, with the time and place, so you can
participate. It isn't useful to post details about protests that have
already taken place.
*Cop26 climate talks will not fulfill aims of Paris agreement, key
players warn.*
What is needed to put civilization on a path to saving itself? Would
10,000 people blocking streets and gluing themselves to airplanes do
the job?
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of Labour, called Tories "scum". Now
half the scum in Britain are distracting attention from their policies
of cruelty by rebuking her crude language.
What Rayner said was totally justified, but the way Aneurin Bevan
(also working class) said it was more effective and harder to attack
superficially: "The Tories are lower than vermin." Be using a less
common word to condemn them, and putting it inside a comparison, he
made it sound incisive rather than crude.
Rayner should not even hint at apologizing, but rather than defending
her insult, she should press the attack with varieties of brief but
substantial condemnations.
US citizens: call on Congress to fund the IRS and stop billionaire
tax dodging.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
US citizens: call on Biden to stop deporting Haitians.
Those who come from South America via Mexico and have no claim to asylum
should be released back to Mexico so they can return to where they lived.
US citizens: call on Congress to expand the Supreme Court,
because the wrecker's right-wing members are corrupting it by deciding
cases without even hearing them.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: tell Congress that we need to invest in our
communities, not in the military-industrial complex.
US citizens: call on Congress to end fossil fuel tax giveaways.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
*U.S. plans projects in Latin America countering China's Belt and Road.*
More information about the International Seabed Authority,
largely controlled by mining companies, that is the only accepted
way to regulate stripping the seabed.
If all else fails, the US could occupy Nauru and carry out regime change
in the name of preventing ecocide.
A Covid-19 vaccine booster dose gives much stronger immunity than
after just two doses.
*Berliners vote to expropriate large landlords in non-binding referendum.*
Starmer succeeded in implementing part of his plan to make it hard for
the left to beat the plutocratists in the Labour Party.
This comes after dropping part of the plan.
In a few years, if the "centrists" (plutocratists) have gained a
bigger share as a result of this, they can propose the other part
again.
Senator Sinema received a campaign funds from a private equity tycoon
after being an intern at his California winery.
The bizarre part is that she did the internship in 2020, while already
a senator. She was paid for the internship. Is this not a conflict of
interest for a senator?
Anyway, this is part of why she is committed to keep taxes low
on those tycoons.
Sinema describes herself as having a nonstandard sexual preference.
In my opinion, that is neither good nor bad, it is just a neutral
personal characteristic, like one's hair color. I think what's
important about Sinema is that she developed politically from
progressive to right-wing.
Please don't be led astray by identity politics!
What are Congress's spending priorities? An added $768 billion for one year
of added military spending passed easily. An added $350 billion per year
to help civilians has met with fierce opposition.
This comes out of the Reaganite ideology that government should never
try to help ordinary people.
US mainstream media coverage of the end of the US war in Afghanistan
was extremely slanted. Most people interviewed for their views were
current or former officials or soldiers. Of the fewer Afghans interviewed,
most were not identified of asked for expertise.
*Fraudulent ivermectin studies open up new battleground between science and
misinformation.*
*Pfizer CEO — Biden's 'Good Friend' — Is Privately Working to Tank Drug Price
Reforms.*
Perhaps Biden can remain friends with people despite their being
politically opposed to him. People used to consider it a virtue to be
able to separate personal friendship from political work. I can do
this for minor disagreements, but not major ones.
The EPA is doing its job for at least one important pollutant:
hydrofluorocarbons used in refrigeration systems.
*Iran fails to fully honour agreement on monitoring equipment, IAEA says.*
Facebook now intentionally puts positive stories about Facebook into
its useds' Facebook news feeds.
Some US senators think that better enforcement of the weak existing rules
on use of businesses' collections of personal data would eliminate the
problem of misuse of that data.
Even if the US had rules as substantial as the EU's GDPR, and enforced
them as well as EU countries do, that would not be sufficient.
US citizens: call on Democratic leadership to support the
Bowman/Khanna amendments to end endless wars in Yemen and Syria.
Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Montenegro, Sri Lanka, and the U.K.
signed an agreement to build no new coal plants.
Germany is an important case because it uses a lot of coal. Now to
convince Australia, China and the US to sign it,
How Georgia's new election law enables Republicans to remove local
election officials and replace them with Republicans that have made
up their mind to rig the election.
The EPA is being sued for reapproving the pesticide paraquat,
which it says is "highly toxic".
The US deported at least 41 children to Haiti although they are citizens
of other countries.
They were deported with their parents, who are of Haitian origin
but were living in South America. I think it was wrong for the US
to send the parents to Haiti.
*'Groundbreaking' Win as Court Rules USFWS Can't Ignore Climate
Impacts on Joshua Tree.*
*‘White feminists’ are under attack from other women. There can only be one
winner — men.*
I agree with the article's point and its values, but I must dispute a
detail of its title. The inevitable winner is not all men, but
rather patriarchy and the men who align with it. Patriarchy with its
idea of masculinity hurts many men, though it hurts women more.
The US is facilitating the reintegration of Syria's dictator Assad,
which includes handing Syria power once again over collapsing Lebanon.
Syria was torn apart between the Assad and the Sunni Islamists that
took over the anti-Assad rebels. For a while, the US sent military
aid to the rebels but it all fell into the hands of the Islamists.
As Assad's men tortured rebel prisoners, the Islamists persecuted
everyone who wasn't Sunni,
which drove all those other groups into Assad's camp.
Then PISSI exploded, and Assad got support from Russia and Iran.
If Assad gains more legitimacy, I fear for the survival of Rojava,
which is the only state in the region that deserves much support.
Influencers are trying to organize to demand more pay for manipulating
the public.
Influencers are one part of the harm Instagram does to the world.
Body-shaming is another. Why let that into your life?
In addition, it makes you run non-free software and collects personal
data about you. Unless you turn it off.
Zuckerberg wants to convert Facebook into a virtual reality world,
which we could call the "zuckerverse".
Most of the places and things would be designed by other designers,
but access to all of them would be controlled and tracked by
Facebook's non-free software. Many designers would get a little
money from this, while Facebook would let the most successful few have
a million or two out of Facebook's billions so as to inspire the rest
with unlikely hopes.
I expect this system to be built on the internet. But unlike the
internet and the pre-2000 World Wide Web, whose protocols anyone is
allowed to implement, this one will be restricted. Free
implementations will not be allowed.
The VR headsets of today are based on non-free software, and since the
headsets can talk over the network, we must expect them to have
surveillance and other malicious functionalities.
Will we ever be allowed to make a free VR headset?
"Corporate social responsibility" is a term that businesses and their
PR agencies use to pretend they will voluntarily treat the public
better — to dissuade us from passing laws that could compel them to
do so for real.
Vanuatu will ask the International Court of Justice to state an
opinion about what rights a country has when other countries are
causing it to be inundated through their greenhouse gas emissions.
*Clearview AI, the controversial facial recognition company that
scrapes public images from social media to aid law enforcement probes,
has subpoenaed internal documents from some of the groups that first
exposed its activities.*
The article suggests this is nothing but an attempt to cause trouble for
those NGOs.
Use of several forbidden mind-affecting drugs for therapy is now
getting clinical trials.
Ralph Nader: Please teach your children about plutocracy and
domination by corporations.
The article's title uses the term "corporate criminals", but that is
too narrow, since it limits the issue to violation of existing laws.
The article's text shows that Nader understands, of course, that the
existing laws are inadequate and the problem is much broader than that.
*Tennessee banned teachers from teaching anything that instructs that
"an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is
inherently privileged, racist, sexist or oppressive, whether
consciously or subconsciously."*
What can we say, morally, about that requirement?
It is absurd to claim that you are racist or sexist merely by virtue
of your race or sex. Indeed, such a claim is bigotry.
What if the social system around you displays systemic racism or
sexism? That may well be so, but it's a different question. That
social system is not your personal responsibility. You can't easily
opt out of it or change it individually (though you can join in
efforts to change it).
However, you may indeed be privileged (or disprivileged) simply by
virtue of your race or sex.
Why the difference? Being racist, sexist or oppressive is a matter of
what you think and do. Bring privileged (or disprivileged) is a
matter of how other people treat you. If people treat you better (or
worse) because of your race, or your sex, you're privileged (or
disprivileged) simply because of your race or sex.
It is a mistake to think that saying you are privileged (or
disprivileged) is a moral judgment about you. It states a factual
point about society, that's all.
Thus, the Tennessee law in regard to privilege forbids teaching how
society really functions.
3.5 trillion dollars for aid to non-wealthy Americans, spread over 10
years, is not a large amount. It is 1.2% of the US economy.
Naturally, it's less than we could really use.
Starmer has abandoned part of his plan to keep future Corbyns out of
Labour's leadership. But not all of it.
(satire) *EU Honors Angela Merkel's Tenure By Giving Her Greece.*
US citizens: call on the NYC Police Foundation to release all information on
its donations to the New York Thug Department.
US unions that represent fossil fuel workers are starting to reconcile
the the short-to-medium-term needs of those workers with the
overriding requisites for saving civilization.
In the past, those unions have lobbied against decarbonization. I hope
they are now changing their positions. I support helping those workers
get through decarbonization and avoid poverty.
I think this would be a lot easier if the US adopted progressive
policies to help all poor people.
*Germany points to reports on "massive irregularities" in Russia's Duma
elections.*
The president of El Salvador seems to be overriding the country's
constitution by corrupting its supreme court.
The unions that support the Labour Party stated they will fight
against Starmer's plan to give the party's right-wing control
over the leadership.
The Tories, since 2015, have undermined the UK's decarbonization plans
on many different dimensions.
Major US accounting companies use the "revolving door" to get their
lawyers into the Treasury Department, where they alter US policies to
benefit the big companies those accounting companies work for.
The article explains that this can be illegal, but the facts would
be hard to prove.
In addition to the measures mentioned in the article, I think that
breaking up each of the large accounting firms into many smaller ones
could reduce the effectiveness of this corruption.
An apology alone is not enough for the US to do after killing an
Afghan family in a drone attack.
I think the US needs to consult with Afghans about the Afghan ways to
make amends for unintentional killings. Following Afghan culture is
likely to satisfy Afghans' sense of justice.
A rally for the wrecker and his Big Lie was widely announced, but
under a hundred people joined in.
Author Greg Palast points out that larger rallies by progressives are
often ignored.
Sanders still refuses to cut the 3.5 trillion wealth-redistribution
compromise any further.
Canadians: call on the NDP to push the Liberal Party for hearings
on adopting a wealth tax.
That's part of what needs to be done to compensate for rich Canadians'
long campaign to spread poverty in Canada.
But don't limit your resentment only to the well-off who can afford a
second home. Really rich people deserve it a lot more.
(satire) *Moscow Debuts New Citywide Bike Sharing Program For Circus Bears.*
A campaign of lawsuits against polluters aims to curb pollution in
various countries.
The first two lawsuits are in Chile and Colombia.
The US has gone on a world-wide paroxysm of violence for 20 years, and
naturally the effects reach the US as well as other countries.
There is a lot of violence in the human world (though humans are less
violent than apes, and modern society is less violent than it was
before). It is unfair to judge yourself as others as "complicit" in
all that violence. Just having something in common with those
responsible is not enough grounds to deduce complicity.
But it does mean we should try to reduce the violence.
The Chinese real estate company Evergrande described as something like
a pyramid scheme, obtaining loans by means of overvalued real estate
assets valued at bubble-inflated prices.
The House of Representatives voted to end certain continuing forms of support
for Salafia Arabia's war in Yemen.
A new New York City law protects a few basic rights for gig workers
that do food delivery.
However, the companies will continue mistreating those workers in
other ways, as the article says.
The food delivery companies do other nasty things.
They mistreat their customers by insisting on
identifying them via digital payment, and make them run nonfree software.
Some of them exploit restaurants, which feel compelled to surrender to
the exploitation because customers demand it.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, there are signs on the street urging people
to pick up take-out themselves rather than use food delivery companies.
Hear, hear!
The Jan 6 attack investigation has sent subpoenas to some of the
corrupter's supporters:
The urban segregation of 1960 persists in US cities, though it has shifted
around to some extent.
Partly this is maintained by the desire of the wealthier to use their
influence and political power to create advantages for their children.
They take advantage of many political systems to do this.
Chinese Wikipedians seem to be campaigning systematically and sneakily
to slant and censor what it says about recent Chinese history.
Ironically, the article emphasizes the term "open source" whose
purpose was and is to draw attention away from freedom (too
controversial a topic). In a second level of irony, in this specific
case the correctness and quality of articles is about freedom.
My 1998/1999 proposal for a universal encyclopedia
dealt with this by
rejecting the idea that there would be one official article about a topic.
Rather, it allowed for different articles written by different authors
and presenting different points of view.
Thousands of Haitian expats who live in Central and South America
have headed for Texas, wishing to live in the US instead.
They are not (in general) fleeing persecution now, so not eligible for
asylum, and probably not eligible for immigration. Nor for temporary
protective status, which has been granted to Haitians who are already
in the US.
Denying them entry to the US may be correct, but that doesn't justify
sending them back to Haiti now, especially if they didn't recently
come from Haiti.
Freedom House's annual global survey reports that internet freedom
declined in 2020, in the US and globally.
Biden has the power to make Covid-19 vaccine companies cooperate with
expanding global production, and should do so promptly.
Over a million Americans are now "internally displaced" -- forced out
of their homes -- by global heating effects.
As these effects get worse, the number will increase.
When will it reach ten million?
US oil companies reduce their taxes by about $60 billion via two loopholes
created in 2017.
This is in addition to a comparable amount in older tax breaks and subsidies.
The D. R. Congo (Kinshasa) has charged a journalist for possession
of video evidence of an assassination, and is demanding he reveal
his sources.
Changing laws or cops' budgets in an attempt to reduce sexual violence
or harassment against women has a history of backfiring: women suffer
increased crime.
If you think a country needs more births in order to prosper, have you
considered the alternative of spending more on giving all the
country's children, regardless of their background, a kind and helpful
upbringing?
The UK is suffering from multiple crises in parallel, generally related
to leaving the EU.
With Corbyn in charge, the consequences of leaving would have avoided
these crises.
There was a big global climate strike on Friday. I didn't see news
about it until Friday, which was rather late. I wish I had learned
about it well in advance, so I could publicize it, and perhaps join
in.
It is not simple for me to do either one. Their web sites require
running nonfree software to see where the actions are. For me to
publicize them requires getting a scraping system updated. That calls
for a week of advance notice, ideally more.
I wish they would post events in a freedom-respecting site.
Then I could simply link to it.
Russia plans to develop AI for censorship purposes.
Arizona Republicans' "audit" of the vote in one highly Democratic
county found 360 more votes for Biden.
But they don't need proof -- insinuation is sufficient.
The Taliban won because of their way of thinking, one that the US
Congress and officials could not understand.
One can understand it as commitment, or as fanaticism.
Donations to help poor countries take action regarding global heating
lumps emissions reduction together with short-term protection from
global heating effects.
It is a fundamental mistake to treat curing the disease and
alleviating the symptoms as equivalent. The inhabitants of countries
receiving aid will want to use the funds for alleviating the symptoms,
and so will fossil fuel companies. But alleviating the systems will
provide only a temporary benefit -- 30 years from now, its effect will
be gone.
If we don't direct these funds to the long term reduction of
greenhouse emissions, they will do nothing to save civilization and
the ecosphere.
Libya will test a fairly new cease-fire by trying to hold an election.
*U.N. rights chief urges Belarus neighbours to protect asylum-seekers.*
*Tunisia labour union calls president's moves danger to democracy.*
Nauru will serve as Australia's press-excluded immigration prison
forever.
Karnataka proposes to ban online games that involve gambling.
I have no moral objection to the proposed ban as regards businesses
that offer gambling. However, if the law prohibits individuals from
privately making a bet using digital communication, that would be
oppressive.
*Canadian Catholic bishops apologize for role in indigenous residential
schools.*
Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou made a deal with the US that permitted
her to return to China. China then released two Canadians that it had
held hostage for almost three years to pressure for Meng's release.
I have no way of knowing whether Meng was guilty of a real crime, and
I can't be sure that the charges against the two Canadians were not
valid, but the bogus trial
they received demonstrates
that China was using them as pawns.
Misguided comparison: is it more effective to insulate large numbers
of homes, or to block a highway as a protest?
If you're the government, it is more effective to insulate homes.
If you're a band of a few dozen citizens with no particular power,
only willingness to make a sacrifice to increase the pressure on the
government, blocking a highway could help. At least people will
notice.
When the government starts taking real and effective action to reduce
greenhouse emissions, your job will be done. That has not happened yet.
*‘Low-hanging fruit’: Insulate Britain’s message makes sense, say experts.*
Alaska, dominated by Republican Covid-spreaders, has filled up its
hospitals and now has to choose which patients will get treatment.
China denies expat Uyghurs information about their disappeared
relatives in China.
*New Zealand: rushing anti-terror law could lead to surveillance overreach,
minor parties say.*
Attacks like the one that occurred recently are desirable to prevent
if that can be done without harm to society. But it is a mistake to
overestimate the importance of such attacks compared with other
problems of society. I would guess that the shortage of housing in New Zealand
kills a lot more people each year than terrorism.
Also, keep in mind that any new anti-terrorism law will prevent only a
fraction of the actual terrorism. It won't make you "safe". And there
will surely be opportunities later to propose further cuts to human rights.
*The world's largest technology companies have snapped up smaller rivals
at a record pace this year in a buying spree that comes as US
politicians and regulators prepare to crack down on "under the radar"
deals.*
The US government is starting to throw off the bizarre spell that was
put on it by plutocratists in the 70s and 80s, which weakened
antimonopoly law almost to the point of nullity. I hope that some day
we can un-merge the giant drugstore chains and the giant supermarket
chains. (Typically a supermarket chain will operate under many
different names, creating a false appearance of more competition than
really exists.)
Texas passed another abortion-restricting law, making it harder to get
abortion drugs.
This is something that can be corrected from outside Texas. A state,
or a federal agency, must set up a system to mail abortion drugs to
women in Texas without insisting on seeing them physically first.
Can Texas really prosecute someone for mailing something from another
state into Texas if it is lawful in that other state?
I seem to recall that in some other responsible countries abortion drugs
do not require a prescription, and that there was a push to make them available
without prescription in the US too.
George Monbiot: *It’s shocking to see so many leftwingers lured to the
far right by conspiracy theories.*
*Top Ad and PR Firms Exposed for Helping Big Oil Greenwash Their
Climate Destruction.*
(satire) *Hospital ICUs At Capacity With Reporters Covering
Anti-Vaxxers Dying From Covid.*
"Green capitalism" sounds great, but when you look at what it means in
practice, it comes down to this: "Governments must not directly take
the strong climate-defense actions that only they are likely to take.
All they can do is set up incentives for companies."
A carbon tax can be a very strong incentive to companies -- if the tax
is large enough and is prescheduled to grow substantially each year.
However, a small incentive is likely to have small effects.
Deadly DeSantis has appointed an anti-vaxxer as head of Florida's
public health.
He opposes requirements, too. His position can be summarized as,
let's all breathe in the virus and accept whatever happens.
I wonder if he is against requiring seat belts in cars, too.
People with these views describe themselves with the word "skeptics",
but that is misleading -- it implies there is a rational doubt. The
mainstream media use that word because they don't want to take sides.
The correct term is "denialists".
Make a Republican cry -- get vaccinated!
Evidence is accumulating that the wrecker was serious about trying to
set aside the election results and seize continuing power.
Tennessee's Republicans have given the unvaccinated priority for one of the
few immediately protective treatments for those who catch Covid-19.
The overall Republican policy is to increase the spread of Covid-19
in various ways. This is a variant of that policy.
Afghan women who studied taekwondo are practicing in secret.
Are martial arts useful for real fighting?
The European Union wants to require small electronic devices to have
a standard USB-C charging port. Apple is against it,
because it profits from imposed incompatibility.
Naturally, Apple cites "innovation" as a reason to sell incompatible
power adapters. Our society systematically overstates the importance
of innovation, because many businesses find that a useful excuse for
mistreating users in various ways.
*Four Tunisian parties say president has lost his legitimacy.*
I don't know any specifics about these parties, but the majority party,
which the president considers an enemy, is not one of them.
Wild boars are proliferating in parts of Italy to the point that they endanger people.
I suggest increasing the hunting of wild boars, including trapping
them in cities, and thus managing their population at a stable level.
*US envoy to Haiti resigns over ‘inhumane’ decision to deport migrants.*
Explaining the situation of the violence against Haitian
asylum-seekers at the Texas border, and relating it to past
acts of violence against slaves who had fled to Mexico.
Earlier in this century, the US allowed Haitians to stay in the US
temporarily even when they could not justify asylum, because
conditions in Haiti were very bad (due to a hurricane or an earthquake
on top of political instability).
Now Haiti has had a hurricane and an earthquake on top of political
instability. Why not let them stay temporarily now?
California has passed bills to protect the privacy of people getting
abortions, or going to abortion clinics for any reason.
The bill prohibiting making videos recognizes that real privacy
protection requires restricting the collection of identifying data,
because regulating its use is insufficient. But I wonder why the law does
not cover still photos also. Aren't those usable for intimidation too?
Privatization of electric supply in the UK requires every electric customer
to have to make an account with an electricity supplier. This market
is badly regulated and unstable.
An appeals court in Italy ruled that it was not a crime for Italian
officials to make a deal with mafia leaders in which the latter agreed
to stop a series of killings.
One of the killings targeted a judge and his family.
I don't know enough to agree or disagree with the decision, legally.
*Low-lying nations implore faster action on climate at U.N.*
*House committee on Capitol attack subpoenas Trump’s ex-chief of staff and
other top aides.*
US citizens: Phone your senators at 1-888-751-2787 and call on them to
support the Make Polluters Pay act.
New Zealand seems to be abandoning the effort to fully eradicate Covid-19.
The lockdown to end the current outbreak has gone on for many weeks,
and yet it keeps trickling along. It appears that transmission
occurs, just enough to defeat eradication, along routes that public
health has been unable to identify.
If everyone got a Covid test every week, perhaps eradication would
succeed.
Salt-tolerant vegetables will allow farmers in some parts of Bangladesh
to keep farming a few decades more.
Once the land is underwater a substantial fraction of the year, I think
these methods will cease to work.
The UK's NHS app uses computerized face recognition. Since it is
implemented by private companies, those companies as well as a state
agency are involved in the process
The app is also nonfree software, and runs only on nonfree operating
systems. Imagining that I lived in Britain, if I were ever tempted to
run it, I could not. Which is a good thing, because nonfree programs
is generally malware (and so, arguably, is this one).
The US proposes to put an immigration prison in Guantanamo.
This is a bad thing to do, and not only for symbolic reasons. The
reason Dubya put the torture center and prison there was to take
advantage of a legal loophole which reduced the rights that prisoners
could claim there.
The same will apply to any immigrants sent there.
We have already seen difficulty in making sure that all unauthorized
immigrants get their legal rights even when imprisoned in the US itself.
No immigration prison should be in Guantanamo.
Using private contractors to run an immigration prison is also wrong,
for similar reasons.
*The delay to New Zealand’s emissions reduction plan is embarrassing –
we need action now.*
Thugs in Melbourne attacked pro-spreading protesters with unjust force.
Even though their cause is unjust, they still should not be brutalized
when their own actions are nonviolent.
Starmer's plan, as head of the Labour Party, is to change the system
of internal voting that enabled the party members to put Corbyn in
charge of it.
The reason Starmer offers no vision for Britain's future that can
bring support is that the the vision that can inspire strong support
is Corbyn's vision (more or less), and Starmer's mission is to oppose
that.
On Monday, September 27, 2021, 16:15pm
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk titled "Free Software and its Political, Ethical Implications for Medicine" in Fundacja Rozwoju Kardiohhirurgii
im. prof. Zbigniewa Religi, POLAND, ZABRZE UL. WOLNOSCI 345A.
This is a RMS dedicated event for medical students, professionals and
scientists, Richard's lecture will be preceded by one by prof. Zbigniew
Nawrat who will give a short intro speech on Automation and its implications
on Freedom and health care/medical services. This event will be limited to Membership of International Society for Medical Robotics, invited guests. Due to covid
restrictions any extra people interested in participating should contact the Foundation
Today's intense fires can destroy a forest permanently.
Animal species can be rendered extinct.
Taiwan has asked to join the TPP.
This may seem like a good strategy for competing with China, but the TPP
is still a business-supremacy treaty,
so signing it would be bad for everyone
in Taiwan except rich people.
A progressive slate campaigns to replace Rhode Island's plutocratist
Democrats.
WHO has cut the safe limits for some pollutants made by vehicles.
*Most infants in 91 countries are malnourished, warns Unicef.*
Some Xiaomi phones have a malfeature to bleep out phrases that express
political views China does not like. In phones sold in Europe, Xiaomi
leaves this deactivated by default, but has a back door to activate
the censorship.
This is the natural result of having nonfree software in a device that
can communicate with the company that made it.
Ten ways to reduce the carbon emissions from global shipping.
*China promises no new coal-fired power projects abroad.*
This is a significant step forward -- and the fact that China has
already made that step, practically speaking does not reduce its
significance. However, it is not enough.
The president of Tunisia is jailing members of
parliament arbitrarily.
* If presidents do not get to replace justices in an election year,
then Coney Barrett’s confirmation is illegitimate; if presidents
do, then Gorsuch’s is illegitimate.* One should resign.
Republicans define "legitimate" as "boosts Republican power."
The European Court of Human Rights concurred that Russia sent agents to murder
defector Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
Everyone: call on climate negotiations to stop excluding military
pollution from climate agreements.
US citizens: call on the Pentagon to investigate civilian casualties
from the Pentagon's drone attacks in Afghanistan.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Right-wing talk radio hosts are very influential as they tell their
listeners not to get vaccinated.
When a host dies from Covid-19,
the station finds another host.
Thai rail workers union leaders have been sentenced to prison for a campaign
where they refused to drive trains with broken safety equipment.
Bias causes US women and blacks to get worse medical care.
For some kinds of problems, the crucial responsibility of bias has
been scientifically proved by adopting systems that eliminated the
possibility of bias.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
Meat and dairy industry campaign groups threaten to withdraw from
discussions intended to achieve global food sustainability, if those
discussions seriously confront the need to reduce greenhouse
emissions
from meat and dairy production.
If they are participating only as sabotage, it is better to show them
the door. It is better in general to make adequate environmental
standards and confront business with them, than to make weak and
useless standards that business will give lip service to. The former
may eventually overcome business resistance, but the latter achieves
only greenwashing.
Scientific research directed at reducing the methane emissions per cow
or per chicken are fine, but we must not count those low-emission
chickens until they hatch. In the mean time, we must make plans
that will avoid disaster if those technologies do not eventuate.
*Joe Biden promises UN an end to "relentless war" and the start of "relentless
diplomacy."*
If truly carried out, this would imply returning to the approach from before
Dubya, not only before the bullshitter.
He also commits to increased aid to help poor countries address global
heating; but it is not clear whether than means reducing greenhouse
emissions (curing the disease) or coping with extreme weather and
sea-level rise (treating the symptoms).
*Global wildfire carbon dioxide emissions at record high, data shows.*
Australia spends money on "avoided deforestation" projects which
consist of paying farmers not to cut down forests. The potential for
these to be bogus is obvious. A study claims that 20% of them are
bogus.
How long will it be before another farm gets paid to preserve the same
forest another time?
How long will it be before a fire eliminates those trees?
*Iran wants resumption of nuclear talks that leads to lifting U.S. sanctions.*
It's a reasonable goal; however, I think Iran would need to offer more
than just a non-nuclear deal. There are other disputes between the US
and Iran. In principle, they could be resolved, and it would be great
if they were, but Iran as well as the US will need to offer concessions.
Each country has done wrongs to the other, as well as wrongs to some of its
own people.
Are those two governments up to the challenge?
*Conservatives Only Care About the Incarcerated When It Comes to the Capitol Rioters.*
The Taliban say they will let girls go to school some day -- after they
institute a "secure transportation system" for female students.
"Buy now, pay later" is becoming more popular as a way to lead you
to spend even more money that you can't afford.
The US has used its influence to prevent other countries from banning
the toxic pesticide dechlorane.
Biden could put a stop to this.
*Sanders Denounces a Pentagon Budget System Found 'Inherently
Susceptible to Fraud'.*
(satire) *Relieved Ecologists Announce Rising Sea Levels Were Due To
Clump Of Hair Clogging Drain At Bottom of Ocean.*
Using Google and Microsoft software Minneapolis schools came with
intense 24/7 surveillance and monitoring of all kinds of communication.
*Rich countries not providing poor with pledged climate finance,
analysis says.*
*Political gestures can be inspiring. But let’s not mistake them for victory.*
Black Lives Matter has brought about scattered examples of real change,
but not much -- not yet -- compared to the magnitude of systemic racism.
*Climate crisis leaving "millions at risk of trafficking and slavery."*
As Bolsonaro calls for his supporters to attack other branches of government,
his support is dwindling.
Maybe Brazil will survive him.
Four Kenyan thugs face charges for killing a human rights lawyer.
More problems with the notional city of the future that a billionaire
wants to build in the US southwest.
These are in addition to the problems of water scarcity and wildfires.
Three Democrats in the House have blocked giving Medicare the power to
negotiate bulk purchases of medicines. They all have close ties
to Big Pharma.
Arguing for a wealth tax in the UK on the wealthiest 1%.
And a windfall profits tax for businesses that profited from Covid-19 and
lockdowns.
Climate protesters glued themselves to highways near London. The
government called this *irresponsible and dangerous*.
If you want to see something irresponsible and dangerous in Britain,
look at the government's inadequate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. The standard to judge by is not whether other governments
are worse. Nature sets an absolute standard, and even though we have
not determined exactly how much reduction is needed, we know that
humanity overall is on track for failure.
*Big tech's pro-climate rhetoric is not matched by policy action,
report finds.*
The EU has condemned the execution of Yemenis tried by the Houthis and
convicted of spying.
I join the EU in condemning the death penalty, and I'm entirely ready to
believe that the Houthis can hold unfair trials in death penalty cases.
After all, the US has often done so.
Salafi Arabia carries out many official executions. I expect that the EU
condemns them, too, but does that get the same amount of press coverage?
Communications training for parents while a potentially autistic baby
is one year old helps many of them to a milder form of autism.
*Gordon Brown calls for urgent action to avert "Covid vaccine waste disaster."*
It seems that the production rate is about to be over a billion doses
per month, this fall. 100 million is therefore around 3 days' production.
That is not "staggering." At the same time, if they could vaccinate
50 million people, it would be a great shame to waste them.
12 billion doses is enough to vaccinate just about everyone on Earth
who can be vaccinated and is willing to be vaccinated. (Covid-19
vaccines are not approved as safe for children, under 12.) That
forecast, if it occurs, will be very good news.
But we can't vaccinate everyone without an effective channel for the
vaccines to reach people in countries that can't pay for them. Will
greedy vaccine tycoons flog them as boosters, and keep poor countries
unsafe?
Americans don't live as long as Europeans. Even rich Americans don't.
Part of this is due to poverty in the US. Part of is due to racism.
But they can't explain all of it.
Construction of the Line 3 pipeline has used so much water in Minnesota
that it has caused a drought which is harming agriculture.
Another example of why we should not allow companies that do business with
the public to set their own rules.
*Texas doctor protests abortion [ban] law by admitting he carried out
[an abortion].*
A Labour MP who disagrees with trans-activists on the definition of
"woman" has received abuse and threats, and has been driven out of
attending the Labour Party conference. In response, another Labour MP
says the party must discuss the matter civilly so that no one is
afraid to attend the conference.
Australian doctors tend to give women with heart attacks less and
worse treatment than they give to men with heart attacks.
More about the Freedom to Vote act's provisions that will hurt
the Green Party
and any other party except the principal two.
*US and EU pledge 30% cut in methane emissions to limit global heating.*
The commitment is to achieve that cut by 2030.
That is impressive by comparison with the general level of government
commitment, but we need to do more.
We are in a race against natural phenomena
that won't be addressed by sincere effort.
The plutocratist Democrats' tax plan increases taxes on the rich just
a little.
*Working people in America will continue
to pay almost twice the tax rate of millionaire investors.*
(satire) *Study Finds Virus Frequently Fooled By Fake Vaccine Card.*
The Legacy Museum presents the history of slavery and racism in America.
Its founder aimed to compensate for the numerous monuments to the
Confederacy throughout Montgomery, Alabama.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
The main Hungarian opposition parties have formed a united front to
try to defeat Orbán despite his rigging the elections.
*Nike and Amazon among brands advertising on Covid conspiracy sites.*
I wonder which adtech companies implement those ads, and how hard an
advertiser has to work to keep its off those sites.
Extinction Rebellion protested in NYC at the headquarters of big banks
which support increased use of fossil fuels.
On the legitimacy of rebellion against oppression, for blacks as well
as whites.
When the protests began against the murder of George Floyd, they were
nonviolent. That was the disciplined response, the one more likely to
achieve a victory over racism. Let is not forget that the violence was
started by a right-wing white provocateur, "umbrella man."
Vandalism of shop windows, in and of itself, is not a major crime, but
he surely intended indirectly to destroy more than shop windows. Have
charges been brought against him? If not, why not?
Maybe violent criminal acts designed to provoke a riot, or to falsely
put the blame on a racial group, should be classified as a federal
hate crime. Hmm, is that already so?
Republicans conducting an "election audit" in Pennsylvania wish to subpoena
personal information about every voter in Pennsylvania.
I think this would violate the Fourth Amendment, but we cannot trust
courts to object these days when Republican-run governments violate
people's rights.
Their aim is to gin up something they can cast as fraud by individual
voters, at least a handful of them. If not actual fraud. Then some
sort of doubt. Then they would tell credulous Republicans that this
supports the big lie, that the corrupter won the 2020 election for
president.
A charity is delivering 8000 more food batches per week.
This represents a failure on the part of the government, which has
the duty to take care of poor people when they are suffering due to
necessary precautions.
The primary cause of the worsening situation [of global heating] is
not the combustion of fossil fuels, but the massive political
dereliction that has allowed the bonfire to go on after we knew
that it posed a potentially lethal threat to humankind.
We have no precedent for malfeasance at this scale therefore
we have no law, no accountability—and so far—no remedy.*
Queer people in Afghanistan are hiding, expecting the Taliban to hunt
for them to murder them.
(satire) *Tucker Carlson announced Thursday that he would be putting his
life on the line by getting a booster shot for a Fox News investigation
into the Covid-19 vaccine.*
(satire) *Fourth-Grader's Report On Anacondas Largely Rehashes
Established Research.*
Everyone: call on delegates to the Cop26 climate conference
to stop excluding military pollution from climate agreements.
US citizens: call on Congress to prohibit shutoffs of water, power,
and broadband utilities.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to cancel the Line 3 pipeline.
*Lack of Trusted Authority Is Why Covid-19 Is Kicking Our Butts.*
Alas, this doesn't give us a clear guide to what to trust. But we can
reject those who we can see are being sloppy. Those who spread
conspiracy ideation, adopting a different "truth" every day,
are being sloppy, so don't listen to them or those who trust them.
*Shamima Begum says she wants to prove innocence in UK courts.*
The UK has exiled her without a trial.
Whether she is innocent or guilty, punishing her without a trial is unjust.
How Rep. Barbara Lee described her refusal to vote to authorize
the US war in Afghanistan.
Her speech reflects deep moral concern, and I honor her for that. Her
expectations were generally valid.
However, if No Good Men Among the Living
is accurate, it says that her
prediction that the US would create a much worse situation did not
have to be true — that the US could have won in 2001. All it had to
do was accept surrender when the Taliban offered it.
Thugs in California are suing over the new vaccination requirement,
and some have threatened to resign.
In the specific case of thugs, the threatened resignations are a great
opportunity to get rid of right-wingers, many of whom would be
inclined to violate the human rights of blacks, protesters, and
homeless people. Maybe not all of them would do that, and many of
them will not have done anything that would be grounds to fire them.
But if they resign, no grounds are needed to accept their resignation.
It would, however, be useful to make it more difficult for anyone who
has quit in protest against public safety to rejoin later.
There should be no religious exemptions from precautions for public
safety. Your right to practice your religion does not include
activities that endanger other people.
China wants to join the TPP.
China often does not really obey trade agreements it signs. I suspect
that China thinks this one would be beneficial only because it expects
to disobey. China may also protect Chinese workers from the full harm
of the treaty, by disobeying it.
*Koch Network Fights to Stop Medicaid Expansion in Remaining States.*
Almost a thousand women are running for seats in Iraq's legislature.
The new Israeli government is taking pragmatic steps to ease the lives
of Palestinians in the West Bank, despite having no internal agreement
on an ultimate goal.
I wonder what Uri Avnery would think about this.
Massive cultivation of a single variety of a species makes the species
vulnerable to extinction.
The Taliban reopened high schools for boys, but apparently excluding girls.
The Pentagon acknowledged its last drone strike in Kabul was targeted
by mistake at a civilian family.
The military personnel believed they had seen people loading
explosives into the car, but what they saw was not explosives. It was
perfectly innocent.
The US stubbornly denied established facts about civilian casualties in
Afghanistan, Iraq and other theaters of its "global war on terrorism",
to the point of becoming famous for denialism.
I hope that the admission of this mistake represents the start of
a new US policy of honesty about civilian casualties.
It is impossible to avoid accidental casualties in war. But it is possible
to avoid compounding the error by lying about them. Also, once the US starts
being honest about them, it will tend to be more serious about considering
the reasons to end end a war.
Many indigenous groups that are entitled to participate in the Glasgow
climate conference will be excluded by the fact that they can't get
vaccinated against Covid-19. They have no access to vaccines. They
call for postponing the conference.
Many of them are being harmed by global heating effects of by the side
effects of extracting fossil fuels, and they want to bring this up at
the conference.
*Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency [showed] that
senior staff have made chemicals appear safer by minimizing the
estimates of how much is released into the environment.*
Protesters demanded the resignation or termination of the US
Ambassador to India for publicly showing support for the violent
Hinduismists of the RSS.
Hinduismists are to Hinduism as Islamists are to Islam.
A House committee has asked fossil fuel CEOs and lobbyists to testify.
At the moment they are asking for voluntary testimony, but I think the
idea is to give them subpoenas if they refuse.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators to call for
elimination of three items in the Freedom to Vote Act that would
further disadvantage parties other than Democrat and Republican.
(satire) *Democrats Face New Hurdle After Republicans Gerrymander All
Left-Leaning Voters Into Single House District.*
(satire) *Night-Shift Janitor Leaves Behind Brilliant Solution To
Israeli–Palestinian Conflict On U.N. Chalkboard.*
If only disputes could be resolved so easily.
Big Oil is continuing to lie to lead us into accepting climate defense
solutions that are too small to save us.
Sanders continues to refuse to make a second "compromise" starting
from the first compromise.
*The Moral Case for Resisting Evictions Amid a Pandemic.*
*Waste from one bitcoin transaction "like binning two iPhones."*
Apple and Google have obeyed Putin's order to block installation of
Navalny's tactical voting advice app.
Apple and Google can't simply refuse to obey, as long as they want to
operate an app store doing business in Russia, and program phones to
report where the user is located.
If the app is free software, it could be put on F-Droid for use on Android.
The UK government condemned Extinction Rebellion for disrupting a
major highway,
in a small foretaste of what future global heating will do to Britain
if the UK does not try harder to prevent it.
The Burmese army suggests that the rebels are bombing cell towers.
It is not clear to me why they would do that. What could they gain?
England plans to put an end to gratis rapid coronavirus tests.
This is very dangerous.
Low-paid workers and unemployed people in the UK are desperately poor.
They can't afford to pay for tests — they will have to do without them.
A Texas Republican admits that banning abortion is meant to convince
women not to have sex.
*Global coral cover has fallen by half since 1950s, analysis finds.*
The New York City school system, and many others in the US, will reduce the
number of cops that work inside public schools.
The system will try to retrain them to implement restorative
justice, but I have doubts about whether people who have lived in the
cop culture can easily change to that.
Supermarket shelves are empty in the UK because decades of
union-busting and letting employers work drivers into the ground
have made the life of a driver unlivable.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls for suspending the
sale of dangerous AI technologies.
(This means those whose use would imperil human rights.)
I don't believe that any kind of usage limits could prevent
face recognition from endangering human rights.
Progressives in Congress have launched a bill to require US banks
to phase out lending to fossil fuel companies.
A medical patients' interest group is campaigning against three
congresscritters that voted to keep Medicare drug prices high.
In principle, making cars detect a drunk driver and refuse to start is
legitimate in my opinion. However, it is unjust for the car to
record data about these events.
If the car gets it, insurance companies will get it.
Facebook sent troll farm output to 140 million Americans users each
month. 100 million of them had not expressed any interest in those
things -- Facebook sent it to them spontaneously.
(Those figures are from 2019.)
Facebook did not seen to consider it urgent to put an end to this.
US nurses are quitting because they are forced to work too long hours.
I see the potential for a catastrophe as the retirements increase the
pressure on remaining nurses to quit.
Everyone: tell General Motors, UPS, American Airlines and other
companies to stop funding insurrectionist politicians.
Everyone: call on AT&T to stop donating to anti-abortion Texas
politicians.
Climate experts fear that China's next cold-war move will be a form of
doomsday machine: threatening burn lots of coal unless the US and
allies back down from plans to strengthen military forces.
There is no inherent link between the two issues, just a stratagem.
Surely China's leaders will think better of this linkage once they see
the stratagem won't work.
Thousands of Americans have died from conspiracy ideation.
Here are descriptions of two of them.
I will not claim there are no conspiracies, because politics is full
of them. For instance, politicians in the same party often make plans
about achieving political goals; they do not deny this, because that
is what a party is supposed to do. Many other conspiracies take the
form of, "You will stick something in that 500-page bill to give us
hundreds of millions, and in return we will give you a 500,000-a-year
salary after you leave office." That kind of conspiracy is not a
crime, but it ought to be.
The horrible mistake of conspiracy ideation is not that it alleges
conspiracies, but that it sets ridiculously low standards of evidence
for them. Most alleged conspiracies are absurd. If you don't try
hard to separate the few valid allegations from the thousands of bogus
ones, you will believe mostly nonsense. And since it is often hard to
get to the bottom of the matter, there are many cases where you will
not be able to be certain.
On the other hand, the internet of today is full of alleged
conspiracies that are total bullshit, baked fresh every day. So the
first step in rejecting them is to see which sources are careless with
the truth, and stop listening to them. Big Lie Republicans and
QAnonentities are not worth taking seriously, except as dangerous
lunatics.
Studying the details of their bullshit is a mistake, unless you need
that to take action againt them. That will waste your time and can't
do any good.
The Pegasus spyware facilitates injustice on the part of repressive or
corrupt governments. It is used against dissidents and investigative
journalists. We would be better off if it did not exist.
Would prohibiting the sale of that program make the problem go away?
Not necessarily. Users both authorized and unauthorized might
continue using it.
Pegasus exploits a problem inherent in the nature of Android and iOS:
they are nonfree software, so users cannot do anything to strengthen
the system. Instead, they are helplessly dependent on Google or
Apple.
*Glasgow climate summit at risk of failure, U.N. chief warns.*
The current plans to mine metal nodules from the sea bottom
would destroy the habitat for many deep-sea species, and it would
take untold ages for that habitat to regenerate.
I can see possible solutions for some of the problems. Instead of
using robots that roll on the bottom and suck nodules off with pipes,
maybe the robots could float a little above the bottom and pick off
some nodules with hands, then put them into pipes whose openings are
kept a couple of meters off the bottom. This might do much less
damage. (That would have to be tested.)
For the animals that live on nodules, it might work to send down
hollowed-out shells of nodules, each with two holes so it will fill
with water once in the ocean. With some care in design and
production, they could serve the same animals.
This would raise the cost of mining the nodules, but the world economy
can afford it. Protecting so much wildlife will be worth the cost.
US citizens: phone your senators to support the Freedom to Vote Act
(which is a modified version of the For the People Act),
and call for eliminating the filibuster to pass it over Republican opposition.
Common Cause said,
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Massachusetts residents: call on your Massachusetts state rep to
support H.135, which would regulate the use of face recognition to
track people.
Here's the personal message I sent.
China has already shown how face recognition serves the purposes of
regimentation and repression. People who want to be tracked should
move to China — please don't let them bring China here.
US citizens: call on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to
advance the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, which would forbid
governments from tracking people by buying data about them from companies
that track people.
Really we should stop companies from collecting data to track people
at all.
A new "compromise" voting rights bill has the ostensible support of
all 50 Senate democrats, including Manchin and Sinema.
Despite not being as strong as the For the People Act,
it will make a big difference.
There are many problems with US elections that this bill will not fix.
It is not enough.
Will Manchin and Sinema turn around and kill the bill they just agreed
to support, by insisting it needs to win 10 Republican supporters to
avoid a filibuster? Or will they agree to eliminate that obstacle?
The author grew up with national ID cards and doesn't understand
how they increase government power for repression.
In addition, the existence of national ID cards leads to indexing
all sorts of person data by them, so that all databases are automatically
cross-indexed by default.
We must reject the idea of seeing wars as opportunities for Americans
to bond with each other.
It is difficult to avoid killing civilians in a war, but how difficult
depends on the way the fighting is done. When fighting with swords,
it's not hard to see whether someone is a soldier. With air strikes,
it is not easy to avoid mistakes, as Nigeria has discovered.
War without a front line (that civilians can keep away from) is
especially likely to mean killing them. And we saw, a few weeks ago
in Kabul, that this is still true for the US military.
France has suspended some workers in the medical system for not being
vaccinated.
Requiring their vaccination is important to reduce the risk of
Covid-19's spreading in clinics and hospitals. If the fraction
suspended is around 5%, the system can cope, and many will get
vaccinated and resume work in a couple of months.
Having all staff vaccinated could reduce the number of staff that at
any time must stay home due to detected or possible Covid-19
infection. It will also contribute to reducing the country's general
level of infection.
Grassroots democracy is thriving in Europe.
US thug departments can get, from tracking companies such as Google,
a list of everyone that was in a certain area in a certain period of time.
Then they can cite that as grounds for investigating anyone and everyone who
was there.
That obtaining the list requires a warrant is a step forward, but
there needs to be other limits on launching a "fishing expedition"
against people simply for being on the list. Either some limit on the
data they can get, or some other grounds to suspect an individual, or
both.
Replacing gas stoves with induction stoves increases efficiency, so it can reduce energy use even if the electricity is itself made from
fossil fuels. In addition, it reduces toxins in the indoor air.
*Exxon helped cause the climate crisis. It's time [for the company to]
pay up.*
Production of PFAS releases extra-powerful greenhouse gases.
The UN rapporteur on extreme poverty says that the UK's planned
welfare cuts would violate the human right to an adequate standard of
living.
The strict Covid-19 regulations in Sydney properly do not allow people
to mingle at funerals. A number of people tried to participate in funerals
in a safe way, by remaining in their cars and watching from a distance.
Thugs came and ordered them to drive away.
Is there a reason to think they might spread Covid-19 this way? The
article doesn't show one. If they parked side-by-side, with open
windows, there could be a danger; did they do that?
I tend to think that the official regulations have loopholes that have
thwarted the effort to end the outbreak there. But increasing
strictness has to be designed with care. Random rigidity in
enforcement won't correct the problem, it will only cause pointless
hurt, or worse.
* Zalmay Khalilzad says [the Taliban] agreed not to enter Kabul and to
discuss future government before president [Ghani]’s swift departure.*
I accidentally typed "Talkiban" when writing the line above. That's what
they might have developed into.
Eritrean civilian refugees that had fled to Tigray were attacked both
by Eritrean soldiers and by Tigray's fighters.
*Aurora police have a pattern of racially biased policing, Colorado AG says.*
New York City wants to require everyone attending the UN session to be
vaccinated against Covid-19.
I am surprised that the diplomats are concerned with what the city
government says, because of their diplomatic immunity. The city can't
make them pay parking tickets, much less get vaccinated.
However, I am concerned for the diplomats themselves. The vaccines
are effective but not perfect, so the presence of unvaccinated
diplomats in the meetings increases the danger that vaccinated
diplomats will get infected.
*Google workers demand back pay for temps company underpaid for years.*
They are doing the right thing, standing up for better treatment of
other workers.
However, the wording of their petition was careless. It calls for
paying the unjustly withheld pay to all the temps "who were knowingly
underpaid by Google." That means, all those who knew they were being
underpaid. But I suspect that none of then knew it, at that time.
I think the employees meant to say, those "that Google knowingly
underpaid."
*Venezuela uses judicial system to suppress dissent,
U.N. investigators say.*
The International Criminal Court has decided to investigate Do-Dirty's campaign
of "fighting crime" by murder on the streets of the Philippines.
Brazil's Federal Electoral Court will investigate Bolsonaro's campaign
for possible illegal fundraising and for campaigning outside the allowed
campaign period.
New algorithms enable universities to compete successfully for
students by offering more loans and less in scholarship grants.
This increases what students will typically have to pay — a burden
already unbearable for most Americans.
(satire) *Police Officer's Wife Still Dreads Getting Phone Call That
Her Husband Has Been Vaccinated.*
*2,180+ Scientists Worldwide Demand 'Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty'.*
This includes no new expansion of fossil fuel extraction.
Federal "intelligence" funds are going to militarist think tanks that
in effect do PR for more military spending.
*Governments falling woefully short of Paris climate pledges, study finds.*
This dilatory approach is leading to 3C of global heating.
*Thailand's parliament on Wednesday started debating draft legislation outlawing torture and enforced disappearance.*
*Singapore reports biggest spike in Covid cases in a year despite 81%
vaccination rate.*
This is disappointing news, because it indicates that current vaccines
alone are not enough to make Covid-19 disappear, even vaccinating
90% of adults, without taking some additional measures.
However, New Zealand seems to be on the home stretch of eradicating
an outbreak.
A California wildfire is running straight towards the remaining giant sequoia trees.
For the first time, Bogus Johnson presents a serious plan for dealing
with a problem. Specifically, for Covid-19 in the UK this winter.
Whether he will set another first, by keeping a promise,
remains to be seen.
The leading Republican in the California governor recall election
started complaining about "fraud" even before he lost.
Robert Fisk on 16 Sep 2001 wrote that the invasion of Afghanistan was
a trap for the US.
It turned out more or less that way, though if it is correct that
the Taliban tried to surrender in December 2001
it implies that the US chose to be trapped.
Ray DeMonia of Alabama had heart trouble and needed intensive care.
None was available nearby, because covidiots had filled the hospitals
in his region. Doctors sent him to a hospital 200 miles away, but he
died.
The article doesn't assert that he died specifically because he couldn't
get an ICU bed quickly, but we know that some cardiac patients will die
from such delay.
Forecasting advancing climate mayhem will compel 200 million people to
leave their homes (but not flee to another country) by 2050.
I expect additional millions will be compelled to flee to other
countries — if they get permission to enter those countries.
WTO patent and secrecy rules are a matter of death for poor countries.
The WTO treaty allows a country to issue "compulsory licenses"
permitting production of life-saving medicines for use within the
country. But many countries are not capable of supporting the
sophisticated production needed to make RNA vaccines, so they need a
more advanced country to make vaccines for them. (Often this would be
India.) The treaty offers no escape hatch to allow that.
That is one of many changes called for in the TRIPES agreement
(Trade-Restricting Impediments to Prodiction, Education and Science).
There is hope that the next German government will change position on this.
Meanwhile, some of Pfizer's secrets have leaked, which could be a step
in teaching the rest of the world how to make equivalent vaccines.
Such information should never be secret.
(satire) *Study Finds Processing Power Wasted Mining Bitcoin Only
Thing Preventing Sentient Computers From Wiping Out Humanity.*
China is reportedly trying to discourage Chinese from learning and
using English.
This might reduce the influence of foreign philosophical and political
views in China, though with a practical cost.
*So-Called Democratic "Moderates" Are Actually Right-Wingers Who Have Always
Thrown Up Roadblocks to Social Progress.*
That may be the underlying reason why Covid-19 caused more financial
difficulties for old people in the US than in other wealthy nations.
(satire) *Democrats Sick Of Being Blamed For Cowardice On Issues They
Actually Just Don’t Care About.*
I think this is unfair to Senator Schumer. He has little leverage to
pressure the plutocratist Democrats in the Senate, including
Coal Magnate Manchin and Semi-Republican Sinema.
*Investigations of US Drone Attack That Killed 10 Afghans Find No Evidence of
Explosives in Vehicle.*
MIT geneticists' singing group.
Abortion providers in Texas, and their lawyers, are afraid of being ruined
by lawsuits even if they win.
Afghanistan's central bank is no longer trying to prevent
money-laundering there, according to people that work or worked there.
It is not clear to me whether the Taliban wanted this to stop this
activity, or the staff fled pre-emptively and brought it to a halt.
Facebook is trying to manipulate us to treat it as acceptable to wear
cameras (and microphones) on one's face when spending time around
other people.
I suggest insist people put them away in an opaque container that
insulates sound pretty well, before we agree to talk with them.
Biden's vaccine requirement mandate shouldn't be controversial, with
Covid-19 killing a thousand people per day in the US.
Encountering other people without vaccination is like driving a car
without learning how to drive safely: it endangers oneself and others.
Everyone who can get vaccinated has a duty to do so.
CVS is offering workers a raise of 5 cents per hour.
I think the workers deserve more.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to commit to voting No on
any bills that fund military spending at over 90% of the current level
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call for a new, progressive, social contract in
the U.S.
*Leaked EU anti-deforestation law omits fragile grasslands and wetlands.*
*Four in 10 young people fear having children due to climate crisis,
The poll covered Australia, Brazil,
Finland, France, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Portugal, the UK and
the US.*
Rebecca Solnit: *Congress is on the cusp of passing the most pivotal
bill in years — if we make them.*
The UN's commission for Syria says that Syria is not safe for returning refugees to.
*Biden to propose target of vaccinating 70% of world in a year.*
This is somewhat of a speedup over current targets. Any speedup in
vaccinating the world is an improvement for all of humanity, but what
we really need is to vaccinate nearly everyone so that the virus will
more or less disappear.
*90% of global farm subsidies damage people and planet, says UN.*
The harmful subsidies are generally for producing meat and dairy
products. The harm includes damage to health, global heating,
destruction of wildlife habitats, and ruin of small farms.
*Haiti chief prosecutor calls for [Prime Minister Ariel Henry] to be
charged in [President Moise]'s killing.*
The reason is that Henry had phone calls with a suspect who is on the lam.
Strangely, President Moise appointed Ariel Henry as prime minister a
few days before he was shot.
Facebook concealed its own research which found that Instagram makes
teenage girls feel more anxious about their body image.
*Philippines' Duterte accused of stifling scrutiny in senate probes.*
Specifically, he prevents the Senate from questioning executive
branch officials.
The bullshitter did this too.
Church of England bishops condemned the proposed law that would
constitute "criminalisation of Good Samaritan."
The US has prosecuted people for giving food and water to unauthorized
immigrants
and to homeless people.
*Moratorium on Deep Sea Mining [endorsed] at Global Biodiversity
Summit.*
This was not a binding decision, but may help lead to a real decision.
*Vaccine-hesitant people are dying -– and their
loved ones want the world to listen.*
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament demands an investigation of the
UK's use of undercover thugs to infiltrate it in the 1980.
Preserving endangered languages calls for encouraging everyone to use
them.
This means rejecting the idea of "cultural appropriation" or
that these languages are off-limits to some people.
*U.S. [reportedly] to hold $130m of Egypt's military aid over human
rights.*
It is good that the US is making an effort. Getting a government to
stop torturing and killing dissidents and journalists is not easy, though.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and say to fully fund
the Build Back Better act, at 3.5 trillion, and increase
taxes on rich people and corporations.
It wouldn't hurt to add that there should be no increased funds
for the military and no subsidy for climate destruction.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
*Australia burying ‘head in the sand’ on security risks of climate change,
former defence official says.*
Michelle Bachelet of the UN says that environmental threats are
the biggest challenge to human rights.
65 environmental defenders were murdered in Colombia in 2020,
setting a new record. World-wide there were 227 murders, also a record.
I think that increased awareness that environmental destruction is
tantamount to delayed murder the reason for this.
A large British union has started to give up on the Labour Party.
Its members no longer believe that the party would do much for workers
if it won.
I suspect that is a consequence of how it treated Corbyn.
(satire) *Fraternity Cookout Raises Over $10,000 To Pay Medical Bills
Of Pledge They Put In Coma.*
Not surprisingly, universal camera surveillance has been useful for
catching various sorts of criminals. That is true in New York City,
as it is (I'm sure) true in China. The danger of this surveillance is
not so immediately visible, but every time we read about the damage
done by US wars based on lies, the cameras played a role in stopping
people from blowing the whistle on those lies.
It's possible that as much as 1/4 of the people who have had Covid-19
still have some amount of long Covid. In the US, that could be
millions of people.
And the medical system, with its hands full with serious acute cases,
cannot yet focus on them. And it doesn't know a lot to do for them,
either.
Millions of Americans are being gratuitously infected by right-wing
extremist Republicans as a political gesture of "drop dead" arrogance.
All those who have a disability afterward should know that the
extremists did it to them.
*Men are inventing new excuses for killing women and judges are
falling for them.*
Scientist Ruth Etzel was director of the EPA’s Office of Children’s
Health Protection. She was out of the EPA for insisting that it do
its job and apply its standards.
The Republican Party is now the party of intrusive, repressive government.
Facebook told a subcontractor to pull the union representative (of
subcontracted janitors) off work on Facebook's building.
That was because he organized a protest against Facebook's demand to
work so fast that it made people work overtime unpaid. This is likely
to be tantamount to firing him, though perhaps with a legal loophole.
This is one more reason why subcontracting should be limited by law to
small numbers of workers doing small total amounts of work.
Not every business is nasty to workers like this, but no business
deserves rights the way humans do. Subcontracting generally gives
workers less power over their work (pay, schedules, working
conditions), even as it reduces the accountability over the business
in regard to the work they do for customers. It benefits the business
but harms everyone else. So let's forbid it, except for small cases
where a full-time employee would simply not make sense.
Iran has agreed to let the IAEA resume monitoring its nuclear
sites.
Maybe it was bluffing to show the US it has to take the non-nuclear
deal seriously. I hope the US does so.
*Rain fell on Greenland’s ice sheet for the first time ever known.*
Vast areas of land, home to half a billion people, may be inundated
in this century by the melting of Greenland and Antarctic ice.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter at 1-202-559-1155 and say to
pass the full budget reconciliation spending bill, but replace any
parts that subsidize fossil fuels or the Pentagon.
Also call on them to close the "billionaire's loophole".
*How mass killings by US forces after 9/11 boosted support for the Taliban.*
Harvard has agreed to divest its endowment from fossil fuels.
I supported this campaign in small ways.
*The Unlearnt Lessons of [September 2001], Twenty Years Out.*
*Poor countries say lack of vaccines may exclude them from climate talks.*
*At least four killed in Taliban crackdown on protests, says UN.*
*Human rights official says group conducting house-to-house searches and
threatening journalists.*
*‘Tomorrow they will kill me’: Afghan female police officers live in fear of
Taliban reprisals.*
*The lesson we failed to learn from 9/11: peace is impossible if we don’t talk
to our enemies.*
US national parks are getting overcrowded.
That is a microcosm of the whole world.
A disabled kea with a broken beak figured out how to use pebbles as
tools.
See what I've written about keas before.
*Forget plans to lower emissions by 2050 — this is deadly procrastination.*
The California legislature has passed a law to require warehouses to
publish the algorithms they use to determine how much work each worker
has to do.
Some sorts of nasty practices, such as retaliation for worker complaints,
are prohibited too.
Governor Newsom has not decided whether to sign it. How can he have
any doubt about what to do?
About several trans men who were reported on in the 1700s in England.
The article is impaired in clarity by using "they" to refer to
some of these individuals. Since they declared themselves male,
the article could have used male pronouns for them to make
it clearer to read.
Sri Lanka, ruled once again by a Rajapaksa, is torturing Tamil
prisoners again.
*If President Biden believes this is an actual 'code red' situation, he
should treat it as such by declaring a climate emergency immediately
through an executive order and stopping all fossil fuel projects.*
*Addressing those who call [vaccine mandates] attacks on personal freedom,
one doctor said that "people also have a right to be able to go to work
and not get infected and not get sick and not die."*
Hear, hear. We all have a duty to get vaccinated, except for the
small fraction that medically can't do it.
*Putin’s crackdown: how Russia’s journalists became ‘foreign agents’.*
Iran refuses to show the IAEA what it is doing with uranium.
I fear this means that the old non-nuclear deal is dead, and that
the wrecker has gifted the world with a nuclear-armed Iran.
Almost no writer is safe from cancellation attempts.
Even if you're not actually racist, or XYZist, people can present
you as such.
The US military sent a drone to attack a car that supposedly had
seen people load it with explosives. But they were not explosives,
they were water canisters. And the driver was an aid worker,
not a terrorist.
*Tunisia's labour union seeks elections before constitution change.*
I agree — hold elections before deciding on such an important question.
*Tunisia's president indicates he will amend constitution*
using the constitutional pathways.
The Tories are cutting back on spending on decarbonizing.
This will cause big job losses, even as support for people to stay home
is removed.
Climate defenders are calling out the advertising agencies that protect
fossil fuels.
Note the contrast between fighting companies for preparing to kill
millions and fighting individuals for views you disagree with.
Governor Newsom has instituted a large program to provide and adapt
housing for California's homeless people — though it isn't as big as
the problem requires.
The crucial need is to encourage dense housing construction near transit
hubs. The voters defeated a referendum to permit that.
(satire) * Study: Majority Of U.S. Population One Disappointing
Sandwich Away From Complete Mental Breakdown.*
Painful surprises like these cause me small mental breakdowns every
day. Fortunately, they last only a minute.
The UN says that Taliban are harassing the Afghan staff that work in UN
establishments in Afghanistan.
Anti-vax disinformation posters in London have been found to contain
razor blades intended to wound anyone taking them down.
*Earth’s tipping points could be closer than we think. Our current plans won’t
work.*
*Death threats sent to participants of US conference on Hindu nationalism.*
"Hindu nationalism" means the antidemocratic movement that Modi leads,
which represses Muslims in India and, more generally, people who are
not Hindus.
The Tories want China's trade enough to disregard China's repression.
Arguments for eliminating "Medicare Advantage" insurance plans.
I've read that Massachusetts, and a few other states, have legislated
that medigap insurance plans cannot reject new subscribers because of
preexisting conditions. Maybe that means I'm safe from this problem.
Perhaps legislation like this nationwide would eliminate the danger of
Medicare Advantage plans to the subscribers.
Nonetheless, it would still be good to eliminate the profiteering and
overbilling described in the article.
*UK criticized for ‘dropping Paris climate goals in trade deal with Australia’.*
* California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah faced historic heatwaves,
which were made possible by human-caused global heating, a study found.*
*U.N. chief urges China, US to keep bilateral spats out of climate fight.*
Tunisia's president says he will "suspend" the Constitution. That's not very different from a coup.
*Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers across dozens of
countries.*
(satire) *Birds Demand Natural History Museum Return Dinosaur
Skeletons Plundered From Ancestral Resting Place.*
(satire) *Horrified Anti-Vaxxer Discovers Every American Who Got
Smallpox Vaccine In 19th Century Now Dead.*
*Biden Nominates Fossil Fuel 'Crony' to head the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission.*
(satire) *CEOs Give Advice To Millennials About Saving Money.*
Self-styled "libertarians" in politics fail to stand up for the
freedom to have an abortion.
I argue that they are not entitled to the term "libertarians", because
their principal goal is to eliminate taxes and have a laissez-faire,
laissez mourir economy.
The right term for them is "antisocialist".
The Guantanamo prison "military tribunals" are unfair trials, rigged
for injustice. The US must eliminate them,
so as not to put itself in a class with the Soviet Union and other
purveyors of bogus trials.
Once the US admits that it cannot give any of those prisoners a fair
trial, it will have to let them go. And then it can close the
Guantanamo prison.
To cleanse its name, the US should prosecute all those involved in
torture in Guantanamo, starting with Dubya.
*We Wasted 20 Years Fighting the War on Terror Instead of [global heating].*
(satire) *Taliban Criticized For Failure To Include Diverse Array Of
Extremist Perspectives In Government.*
Taliban attacked female protesters with whips and sticks.
Children are no longer basically safe from Covid-19.
The US recently had 252,000 new infected children in one week.
Since the vaccine has not yet been approved for children — because it hasn't
been tested for them — we need to protect them by requiring masks in school.
Everyone: on Sep 14, join a protest against Apple and its plans to
insert snooping software in SpyPhones.
US citizens: Sep 19/20, join actions in favor of climate defense.
A court has rejected Deadly DeSantis's ban on mask mandates in schools,
allowing schools to require all the students to wear masks.
Vaping tobacco often leads to smoking cigarettes.
For the Boston preliminary municipal election for mayor,
I narrowed down the choices to Kim Janey and Michelle Wu.
Michelle Wu had answered Ballotpedia's questions with copious
information about what she stands for. I agreed with most of it.
Kim Janey hadn't answered those questions. The cards her campaign
mailer me told me about a few important issues, but no way to ask about
other issues. No phone number, no email address, only addresses on a
few online dis-services and a web site that told me, "Please enable
Javaascript." I'd have had to run nonfree softwsre to talk with
her campaign.
I voted for Michelle Wu.
Louisiana state thugs show a pattern of beating and maiming black
motorists, then lying about it.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
Vaccine production is accelerating but the wealthy western countries are
hoarding it.
Taliban thugs beat up Afghan journalists that they had arrested
for covering a protest in Kabul.
*Big oil's delay tactics are the new climate science denialism.*
The UK is about to follow Australia in towing boats of unauthorized
immigrants back to France.
The UK does have a legitimate argument for saying, "If you'd like
asylum, ask France. You're already there."
Designating armed rebel groups as "terrorist" does not magically
defeat them, but it gets in the way of making peace with them.
*France to give free access to contraception for women aged up to 25.*
This should be the case in every country; for poor countries, the
world's rich should pay the cost.
*Hong Kong police raid Tiananmen massacre museum.*
China suppresses any attempt to talk about the huge protest and the
subsequent massacre at Shā Xuésheng Mén (Kill Students Gate).
Where suicide is criminalized, the effect is to deter people from seeking
therapy if they are thinking about suicide.
*Abortion Bounty Hunters in Texas Are Not "Whistleblowers" — They're
Cruel Vigilantes.*
Whistleblowing means reporting on abuses of power and authority.
With that point understood, we can recognize misuse of the term.
The Christian right-wing organized in the 1970s to demand the right
for churches to practice racial discrimination.
Later, in the 80s, it took a stand against abortion rights as a political football.
Los Angeles thugs ask each person they talk with for per social media
accounts.
I wonder what happens when someone says, "That's private."
Do they arrest per on some pretext? Beat per up?
Estimating the carbon budget: 90% of coal reserves and 60% of oil and gas
reserves must stay in the ground, and that only gives us a 50-50 chance
of remaining below 1.5C of global heating.
The article apportions these excluded reserves among countries.
A Chinese PR campaign blames the US for Covid-19.
This is about as stupid as the wrecker's campaign to blame China
for Covid-19.
Governor Abbott combines factual falsehoods with his religious
fanaticism.
Anti-vaxxers threatened violence against a scientist who criticized
the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19.
I don't know enough to reach any conclusions about the use of
ivermectin, but threatening scientists for stating their conclusions
is violent and puts people in danger.
Legal observers at a protest in 2020 have sued the New York Thug
Department because thugs that beat them up.
The Taliban have banned protests, and banned all protest slogans
without explicit approval.
*"Incredible fear" among women across Afghanistan — U.N. official.*
There is uncertainty about what policy the Taliban will actually implement
and how repressive that will be.
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, September, 18, titled
Free Software and the GNU General Public License.
*Gulf Drilling Condemned as Hundreds of Hurricane-Related Spills
Investigated.*
(satire) *Inmate Granted Parole After Court Determines Release Poses
No Threat To Prison's Bottom Line.*
Russia has chased a lawyer into exile, for defending persecuted
opposition figures.
Should sculptors and other artists that worked for the Nazi regime
have been cancelled? Should the non-Nazi work that they have done since
the fall of Hitler be scorned and removed?
I don't think the fact that they made art for the German
government when it was in Nazi hands implies they should be
blacklisted.
Uganda has charged opposition political leaders with murders
that may not have anything to do with them.
The collapse of a metro train overpass in Mexico City has been traced back
to specific improper construction. Given the level of corruption in Mexico,
I suspect that this was fraud.
It should be possible to identify the companies responsible, and maybe
even the individual inspectors responsible.
*Mexican Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion in historic shift.*
Hooray for the women of Mexico!
And for the women of southern Texas, since Coahula is right across the
middle of the Texas border. They will be able to get an abortion in a
closer place.
Except for the women who are unauthorized immigrants, since they don't
dare visit Mexico and return. They need abortion rights in Texas.
More about the court's reasoning.
Australia plans to subsidize a large fracking project.
Businesses seem unable to destroy civilization fast enough with
their own resources.
*Hong Kong: police arrest senior members of group that organised Tiananmen
vigils.*
They decided to face prison rather than identify their members for further
persecution.
*[The September 2001 terrorist attacks] militarized law enforcement and made
every American a suspect.*
I use a year when I refer to those attacks, rather than a month and
day, to present them as an event that happened some years ago rather
than as a part of the eternal present. I hope that will help Americans
throw off their influence.
Texas Republicans' example of disregarding constitutional rights by
inciting vigilante lawsuits can be turned against Republicans in other
areas of law.
The Department of Homeland Security disregarded plentiful evidence that
fanatical supporters of Trump were planning violence on Jan 6,
because
its political guidance, coming from Trump, was to focus on imaginary threats
from immigrants and from Antifa.
Everyone: Stand with striking Nabisco workers.
Virologist David LV Bauer recognizes that vaccination is crucial protection
against Covid-19. He explains how anti-vaxxers took a statement out of context
and used it to misrepresent him as an anti-vaxxer.
When I see people arguing for an implausible conclusion and showing
signs of willingness to distort, I stop reading it. That approach
doesn't converge on truth; rather, it leads to auto-expanding myths.
*California bill seeks to halt prison-to-ICE deportation pipeline.*
Prisoners who risked their lives fighting wildfires now face
deportation.
Many species of animals are evolving slowly to cope with higher
average temperatures.
That's fine as long as they can keep up. But as global heating speeds up,
more and more species will lag behind and die out.
Meanwhile, there are hard limits to cope with. Small adaptations may
not enable humans to survive a fatal heat-humidity combination. As
long as we depend on evaporation to cool our bodies, it will be
effective only when the ambient air causes evaporation.
* Wild relatives of some of the world’s most important crops, including
potatoes, avocados and vanilla, are threatened with extinction.*
Breeding crops with their wild relatives is a crucial method
for adapting them to cope with diseases, pests or environmental change.
Those are spreading a lot right now, so we should not allow
our resources for coping with them to be lost.
*Heather Bresch, [Senator] Joe Manchin's Daughter, was CEO of Mylan, the drug
company that artificially increased the price of Epipens.*
Republicans' "Happy Labor Day" card to unemployed workers: "Your
unemployment benefits have ended."
A US "press freedom" bill would protect journalists facing persecution
in other countries.
But not journalists such as Julian Assange facing persecution in the
US.
*EU "seeking to turn migrant database into mass surveillance tool."*
Idaho's hospitals are overwhelmed with sick unvaccinated patients.
The state has formally declared that it can't properly treat all of them.
*From climate crisis to Brexit, [so-called] alarmists have been proved
right. It's time to start listening.*
Since 2002, right-wing terrorism has killed more Americans than
Islamist terrorism.
What's more, Islamist extremism has never threatened the US's freedom
or democracy. Right-wing extremism has been threatening the US
freedom and democracy ever since the PAT RIOT Act.
*DHS Division Failed To Analyze Intelligence Ahead Of Capitol Violence.*
The Tory election bill is designed to wipe out Labour's union
campaigning.
The demand for fish oil is leading to overfishing of krill.
In addition, the many animals (including whales) that feed on krill
will starve.
A union is pressuring Hollywood movie companies to raise the pay for
most workers above minimum wage.
*Ecuador’s government is considering creating a new marine reserve near the Galapagos Islands to protect migratory species [of ocean life].*
Human Rights Watch says that Egypt's suppression forces have murdered
hundreds of dissidents and said they were killed in gun battles.
Amnesty International says that Syrian refugees sent back to Syria
have been tortured, even disappeared.
Supporters of Bolsonaro used trucks to try to drive through lines of
cops to attack Brazil's Congress.
If he tries to overthrow democracy, the cops may help defend it.
30 years before Jefferson thought about freeing his slaves and
didn't, Robert Carter freed 500 slaves.
*More global [foreign] aid goes to fossil fuel projects than tackling
dirty air.*
A climate scientist reports on being stunned to watch climate disaster
cover New York City so soon as 2021.
Jurist Laurence Tribe suggests ways for the US government to prosecute
those who try to use the Texas anti-abortion law to persecute people
that help women get abortions.
A billionaire wants to build a city of the future for 5 million people
— in an arid area where there isn't enough water for the current
inhabitants.
According to one model, the climate impact of a transatlantic flight
could cost global economy $3,000 over the course of this century.
That number embodies assumptions which may not be true. If
civilization collapses by 2060 with or without the flight, the
flight's ultimate impact might be zero. If civilization survives
enough to talk about the impact of any specific act, that impact could
vary depending on other details.
I wonder what the likely impact of having a child would be. According
to the study which estimated the expected impact of one child as 2880
translatlantic round trips, it would be 2880 * 2 * 3000, which is
17,280,000.
Rounded to one significant figure, that is 20 million
dollars. But I suppose that could be off by a factor of 5 or 10 in
either direction.
*Republicans in crosshairs of 6 January panel begin campaign of intimidation.*
They are trying to intimidate phone companies that the House investigation
has given subpoenas for the phone records of officials that worked for
the coup leader.
The Taliban have for a week blocked charter flights from evacuating
people from Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan.
Remote work for many companies requires workers to use computers
supplied by the company, running software designed to snoop on them.
A rural village in Taiwan set an example for fast and firm reaction to
an outbreak of Delta.
It seems clear from the article that there were cases outside
Fenggang. What happened to the outbreak outside Taiwan.
Half a million Indian farmers protested against Modi's farm laws, which are likely to enable big middleman companies to dominate food
distribution in India, as they do in the US. In the US, the result
has been to push farms into bankruptcy so that bigger companies can
buy up their land.
*The six problems aviation must fix to hit net zero [greenhouse
emissions].*
*More than 200 [scientific medical] journals call for urgent action on
climate crisis.*
Texas women are planning to defy the anti-abortion law.
Russia has jailed 45 Crimean Tatars, including their elected leader.
They strongly condemn Putin's seizure of the Crimea.
The SpaceX launch site is next to wildlife sanctuaries. When a rocket
crashes, the debris (including fuel) can poison the wildlife.
Bolsonaro is rallying his supporters to prepare a coup.
*Taliban break up Afghan women’s rights march with gunfire.*
And tear gas.
*‘Lost generation’: education in quarter of countries at risk of collapse.*
Lukashenko has ordered 11 years' imprisonment for opposition leader
Maria Kalesnikava.
Russia targets opposition candidates with decoy candidates that
have the same name. Now they even look similar.
Venice tracks everyone in the city from camera to camera. Now it
plans to force everyone in the city to identify perself to enter.
This is associated with a plan to collect a fee from non-residents,
but I don't object to that. Maintaining Venice is expensive, and so
is protecting it from sea level rise. I would not mind paying, if I
could do so anonymously.
I will not go to Venice again if that practice goes into effect. But that
doesn't mean I will be safe from it — because it might spread.
Overfishing is driving 1/3 of all shark and ray species to extinction.
Vietnam sentenced a man to 5 years in prison for breaking the general quarantine rules and spreading Covid-19 as a result.
One of the people he infected died from it.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the mass transit funds in the
budget bill, which were removed at last minute from the infrastructure
bill
US citizens: call on your Congressperson to support the demand for
clemency for 4000 medically vulnerable prisoners that have been released
to house arrest.
US citizens: call on Congress to expand Medicare benefits and extend them
to a lower starting age.
Everyone: sign the letter rebuking Apple's snooping plans.
If we convince Apple to back down, this time, we will have beaten off
one threat of massive surveillance.
But real protection from insertion of malicious
functionalities into proprietary software
will come only from
rejecting proprietary software. We need to learn that no convenience
is worth the price if the price is using proprietary software.
Residents of Massachusetts: call on your state legislators to pass the VOTES
Act.
US citizens: call on the FCC to require phone and internet companies
to prepare adequately for hurricanes.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Women's Health Protection
Act.
Everyone: call on Bell County District Attorney to drop the
charges against Marvin Guy.
US citizens: call on Congress to make top fossil fuel executives
testify, even if it requires a subpoena.
The Afghanistan Papers: *after eight years ... US and its allies were
unclear on what they were doing and who they were fighting.*
It was even more confused at the start.
Officers' internal military reports, obtained later using FOIA, showed
that fighting was achieving nothing, showing that the encouraging
public statements made by the same people were deception.
*As the Taliban overran Afghanistan, Australia told asylum seekers
they should expect to return there.*
This includes people who would very likely face persecution for
well-known reasons.
A package of bills would help reduce the monopoly power of
Big Tech.
This would not address the core injustice of their collection of
personal data, much of which would also get into the possession of the
US government. However, with more competitors we might someday find
one that offers anonymous purchase, etc.
*[Big Pharm] is trying to leverage its role in successful coronavirus
vaccine development to sink a "once-in-a-generation" chance to
slash drug costs.*
The vaccine companies are gouging on vaccines,
so we should see the importance of vaccines as one more reason for
laws to curb Big Pharma's ability to gouge.
*It’s Time to End Religious Exemptions During Public Health Emergencies.*
You must have the right to practice your religion (if any), but that does
not excuse you from the duties of all citizens.
*Guatemala top court eliminates prison sentences for corruption crimes
by public servants [including judges].*
US citizens: call on Congress to legalize abortion in all states.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act.
US citizens: call on Congress and Biden to demilitarize the police.
*German Groups Sue Major Carmakers for Fueling the Climate Emergency.*
For fun, let's name hurricanes after oil companies.
For justice, let's make them pay for the damages.
(satire) *U.S. Responds To Rising Sea Levels By Patting East Coast
With Towels.*
(satire) *Optimistic Researchers Say There Still Time To Head Off
Climate Change Before It Starts Killing Rich People.*
Greg Palast: *Power outage in New Orleans: Is Ida or Entergy to blame?*
Some construction companies in New York City make special arrangements
to hire ex-cons and pay them a pittance to work in unsafe conditions.
The next step in Texas Republicans' repression of women will be to
prohibit administering abortion pills or mailing them.
It seems absurd to think that a state could prohibit mailing something
there via US mail from another state where it is lawful, but with
radical Taliban on the Supreme Court, there is no telling what they
might do.
Texas women should get abortion pills in advance in case they become
pregnant.
American businesses are giving no support to the women of Texas
against Republican repression.
*The Texas Taliban wing of the Republican Party.*
(satire) *New Texas Law Allows Private Citizens To Hold Pregnant Women
Hostage Until Birth.*
Modeling now explains how the heating of the Arctic, in winter,
occasionally directs a large burst of cold air south, causing extreme
winter weather
in what we used to call the temperate zones.
People who worked at the site of the collapsed World Trade Center in
2001 are suffering from diseases of old age, including dementia, in
their 50s.
I recall that officials said the air around the site was safe to breathe,
though this was not true.
Hurricane Ida caused leaks of oil and toxic chemicals on the Louisiana
coast.
Cancellation as mob rule: the article
compares
it with the Puritans of old New England.
To me, it resembles the Red Guards that I read about in Life and
Death in Shanghai (Nien Cheng).
Although people
attempted to cancel me two
years ago, what has happened to me is not as bad as what happened to
those described in the article. I was fortunate.
People from disprivileged groups were particularly likely to die in
and near New York City from Hurricane Ida's flooding, because the
shortage of housing had pushed them into living in basements that were
not safe.
*[Climate crisis] deniers are as slippery as those who justified the
slave trade.*
When one fallacious argument ceases to be believed, they fall back
to the next line of delusion.
*Europe to miss 2030 climate goal by 21 years at current pace — study.*
*Komodo dragon in danger of extinction as sea levels rise.*
Along with 38,000 other species.
The Department of Homeland Security, or shall we say Committee for
Public Safety, has interrogated 180,000 US citizens trying to enter
the US in a two-year period, 2017 to 2019.
14 were stopped from entering the US, effectively exiling them, and
without a trial too — though exile is unconstitutional even as a
sentence, since a US citizen has an unconditional right to enter the
US.
During the French Revolution, the Committee for Public Safety was
responsible for terror. For inflicting the terror, that is.
*Louisiana Shell refinery left spewing chemicals after Hurricane Ida.*
Hadley Freeman: When a friend asks, *what will happen to her
when she’s old? Will she be all alone? So should she have a baby now? I
look her right in the eyes and I tell her what I always tell women in
these circumstances: don’t bother.*
*‘Panic made us vulnerable’: how 9/11 made the US surveillance state — and the
Americans who fought back.*
US citizens: Support the Grand Canyon Protection Act.
*As China woos the Taliban, Uyghurs in Afghanistan fear for their lives.*
Developing technology that could make air conditioners more efficient,
or replace them with passive technology.
*[Senator Manchin] Reaps Big Financial Rewards From a Network of Coal
Companies With Grim Records of Pollution, Safety Violations, and Death.*
Afghanistan had 250 female judges who now fear that men they sentenced
will murder them.
London thugs have developed new tactics to defeat
Extinction Rebellion protests.
Partly this operates by keeping most
of the activists away from those they are directly attacking.
Meanwhile, they have worked out a plan to avoid talking about the
protests, or the issue of defending our climate.
To ask whether Extinction Rebellion has "lost momentum" is foolish,
shallow journalistic habit. This is a conflict, not a race. The
protesters are valiantly trying to pressure politicians to try to save
civilization, while those politicians prefer to serve the short term
interests that profit by bringing chaos, disaster and violence. The
thugs use violence when convenient that end, while the protesters
carefully remain non-violent.
State barriers to abortion exist in many parts of Europe.
Malta's ban is even more absolute than that of Texas.
The former Georgia prosecutor who shielded the killers of Ahmaud
Arbery from arrest now faces charges of acting from personal prejudice.
One of the killers had worked for her.
Philadelphia-area cops seem to have killed an eight-year-old by
firing into a crowd.
They wounded three others.
Persons in or near that crowd were shooting, sometimes perhaps at the
thugs. But if the cops could not identify the shooters and aim
carefully at them, they were far more likely to hit bystanders than
their targets. What they did may not have been evil, but it was
spectacularly incompetent.
Fictional cops know not to shoot at someone in the middle of
bystanders. Why didn't these real cops know it?
Extinction Rebellion activists protested against British
banks by nonviolently carrying signs near the Bank of England.
A few dozen carried signs saying they were violating bail conditions
imposed on them after they were arrested for other nonviolent protests.
A common technique for crushing protest movements to arrest protesters
(maybe without there being any crime) and put them under pressure to
agree to "I won't protest again" bail conditions.
A protester pointed out that global heating effects are obstructing
roads around the world, and will do so with increasing frequency.
Shouldn't the British government arrest global heating first?
Douglas Rushkoff analyzes QAnonsense as a kind of addiction.
*Almost 6,000 Boko Haram fighters have surrendered, Nigerian army says.*
Afghans who worked for peace campaigns, or to aid refugees, and did
not support either the US-backed government or the Taliban, fear
Taliban repression now.
Deadly DeSantis is once again trying to conceal facts about Covid-19
in Florida. Now he has altered the way records are kept so as to
undercount deaths.
*North Atlantic right whales critically endangered by climate crisis, new
study finds.*
NOAA has made a rule to protect North Atlantic right whales, but it's
insufficient and the population will probably continue to decrease.
(satire) *New Texas Abortion Law Offers $10,000 To Private Citizens
For Names Of Anyone They Heard Was A Slut.*
Democrats in Congress have introduced a bill to establish abortion rights
in case Republicans on the Supreme Court abolish Roe v Wade.
To pass this will require the Senate to abolish the filibuster.
I don't see a way to put more pressure on Manchin and Sinema.
I hope people find a way.
*Climate Groups Target Congress With 'Gas Is Not Clean' Campaign.*
*The Long-Lasting Consequences of the War on Terror.*
The US government may not use that term any more, but the surveillance
and assassination systems remain in operation.
The lead producer says that the last drone strike in Kabul targeted a
car filled with explosives and destroyed it, and the explosion also
killed ten members of an Afghan family who were near it at that
moment.
If that is correct — I don't have any other source of information
about this point — then I won't criticize the US Army for firing a
missile at those armed terrorists. Indeed, if they had not been
stopped, they might have killed a hundred Afghan civilians instead of
ten. The fact that bystanders were near them at that moment was
something random and uncontrollable.
Rather than a war crime, it is an example of what war implies.
Fighting a war sometimes kills civilians. Sometimes because a soldier
vents hatred, sometimes by an accident that everyone regrets.
We should keep this in mind when we consider whether to start a war,
and whether to end one.
*Let's Open the Books: We Need a Truth Commission for the Afghan War.*
The legacy of past segregation in housing often manifests itself
in racist allocation of pollution.
The plan for an oil pipeline running through black neighborhoods
illustrates systemic racism. However, it is an atypical example
because an additional oil pipeline is bad no matter what path it
takes. If we allow fossil fuel extraction to continue unchecked,
no one will be safe.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
*Estimated Cost of Post-9/11 US Wars Hits $8 Trillion With Nearly a Million
People Dead.*
I am pretty sure that the total of one million is based on an
underestimate of the number of Iraqis killed — for instance,
the figure from Iraq Body Count, which counted only the deaths
which could be individually verified.
*Republicans seethe with violence and lies. Texas is part of a bigger war
they’re waging.*
The ultimate goal is to put an end to freedom of thought, freedom of
speech, freedom of religion, and democracy. Calling them the American
Taliban is a good comparison.
A PISSI terrorist stabbed people in a store in New Zealand. Muslims
and non-Muslims there joined to condemn the attack.
In response, some stores are ceasing to sell knives and scissors. What lunacy? Where are people supposed to buy them? It is absurd
to crack down on every household item that could be used as a weapon.
Afghan military pilots that fled to Uzbekistan are now treated as
prisoners and fear Uzbekistan will hand them over to the Taliban,
perhaps to be killed.
The US should bring them to safety.
In theory, the Taliban respect women's rights, but women say that the
practical limits preclude exercising any rights.
The Taliban want two things that can't be reconciled. How they
respond to this will determine what sort of relations they can
have with the rest of the world.
Italy is considering requiring everyone to be vaccinated against
Covid-19.
I hope there will be an exception for those who have a specific
medical reason why they should not be vaccinated. The article did not
mention this, but I expect that there will be an exception for them.
That aside, it is everyone's duty to get vaccinated so as to help
eradicate the disease.
Tories want to make the non-rich pay the extra costs of the NHS.
Canadians, get advice from a local climate defense group on who to vote for.
If the group clearly says, "Canada should stop exporting fossil fuel,"
then it has enough courage to tackle the issue squarely, so it will
try to give you good advice on who is best to vote for in your area.
50,000 attended the Boardmasters festival in the UK, and 5,000 caught
Covid-19.
The festival required proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test, but no
other precautions against transmission. The photo shows that people
were packed close together.
This shows that vaccination verification alone does not ensure
people's safety. Other precautions are still needed. Vaccination
verification can make it possible to hold events and open venues which
otherwise would have to be kept shut, but they do need masks and
physical distancing,
Also, since people under 12 cannot be vaccinated, perhaps this must
be limited to places and events where few children will go. Those
that attract children may still have to be shut.
Apple has made a concession to pressure against its anticompetitive
practices by allowing other companies to restrict users of their apps
through their web sites, rather than through the Apple Store.
The anticompetitive behavior that most restricts users
is that they can't use alternate app stores with free software.
In other words, that there can't be an F-Apple like F-Droid.
*Hurricane Ida Makes a Mockery of Big Oil’s Philanthropy.*
As the US mainstream media cover Hurricane Ida, they mostly ignore its
cause: global heating.
Of the few stories cited as not ignoring this, a couple did use terms
such as "climate crisis" and "climate change-driven disaster" that put
this "change" in its deadly context. Let's call on the media to do
that, rather than "say 'climate change'."
Americans blinded by thugs at Black Lives Matter protests are meeting
up and organizing.
It is no accident when a thug blinds someone with a rubber-coated metal
bullet. If thugs followed their official rules, they would not hit
anyone in the eye. They are supposed to aim below the torso.
Thugs shoot to maim anti-racist protesters because the thugs
are racist, or right-wing, or both.
The article linked to in the first paragraph displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
India preemptively cut off the internet in Kashmir to prevent protests
expected after the death (from medical problems) of a separatist leader.
London thugs punched and bashed Extinction Rebellion protesters who
had locked themselves to a bus.
It sounds like the thugs broke some windows too.
The protest was nonviolent but mildly disruptive. I say "mildly" in
comparison with the category 6 hurricanes, tornadoes, fire clouds and
sea inundations that global heating will cause in England if
Extinction Rebellion does not achieve its goal.
Later information showed that it was the thugs that broke windows
in the bus. The protesters remained steadfastly nonviolent.
Increased farming, which often implies deforestation, is the main cause
of the possible coming extinction of half the species of trees.
One easy way to help avoid this is to help the human population
decline, but having fewer or no children.
*Black surgeons ‘promoted far less than white colleagues in England’.*
Systemic racism affects people in many different areas of life. A
Massachusetts study found
that, on average, blacks convicted of crimes got longer sentences than whites convicted of comparable crimes in comparable circumstances.
The right-wing extremists on the US Supreme Court chose to do nothing
as Texas prohibits abortion using a crushing new method that would put
anyone who helps someone get an abortion in danger of bankruptcy.
The horror of this method is that you can't have a trial that would
decide, once and for all, whether you committed a crime. You can't
even call for a trial in advance to determine the answer. Instead you
face an endless series of lawsuits from people that were not involved,
which don't give you the safeguards of a criminal trial.
The use of this method amounts to nullification of the constitutional
rights of the accused — for anything whatsoever. The method itself
is tyranny, and it is supposed to be unconstitutional, but the US
Supreme Court of today doesn't care.
I was not surprised they decided to allow prohibition of abortions,
but I was shocked that they allowed this.
*It’s time to brace ourselves for a world without Roe v Wade. Here’s what we
must do.*
*Women can continue working in Afghan government, say Taliban.*
If they put this into practice, it will confirm an advance that
was only partially implemented by the previous government.
However, the fighters they recruited may take out their fanaticism
to stop this.
It looks like Tunisia's president sent an exiled Algerian dissident
back to Algeria for prosecution, without even a hearing.
Colorado has charged three thugs and two paramedics of killing Elijah
McClain. They stopped him, injected him with ketamine, and put him in a choke
hold. He never did anything that was grounds to bother him, but someone
in the neighborhood called and said he was "suspicious".
*Ninety-nine percent of people arrested by Beverly Hills "safe streets" unit
were black, suit says.* You might as well call it the "white streets" unit.
(satire) *Final U.S. Soldiers In Afghanistan Do Some Last-Second
Nation-Building On Way To Plane.*
If Republicans set up a repressive state based on minority voting,
would they ask the Taliban for advice? Or would they ask China?
*WHO opens pandemic intelligence hub to look out for future crises.*
Shell plans to have 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the UK.
How many of these permit paying cash?
Hurricane Ida rained so fast on New York City that it caused floods
in the streets and the subways.
The storm drains were not designed to cope with such a flow of
water.
It will get a lot worse in the next few decades. It is no use trying
to keep up with this — we have to slow it down by curbing global
heating.
Laurence Tribe explains the Soviet-style society of persecution that
the Texas abortion ban law has created.
Virginia will finally be able to remove a statue of Robert E Lee in
the state capital.
Tories want to ruin people's lives for using the basically harmless drug,
nitrous oxide.
I can only suppose they want to get their supporters high on
persecuting those despised young people.
Greg Palast says that the lasting blackout of much of New Orleans was
the result of malingering by the power company, Entergy. He says that
the company profits from the losses caused by hurricanes, so it has
stubbornly refused to take the necessary precautions to reduce damage.
*Texas schools are surveilling students online, often without their
knowledge.* School-provided computers read students' email.
The article adds "or consent" to the first sentence, but I don't think
that consent can excuse a system of massive surveillance.
What if a school finds that a student plans to travel out of state for
an abortion. Will that make the school vulnerable to lawsuits by the
dozen? Will the school protect itself by reporting her and sticking her
with a baby that will keep her poor for life?
Children often catch Covid-19 nowadays, and since vaccines are not
ready for them, when they go to school they tend to spread it to each
other.
It was recently announced that 1/7 of the children who catch
Covid-19 have disability months later.
Some US right-wing fanatics hate the US government so unthinkingly
that they love the Taliban simply for defeating the US.
I don't suppose the right-wing fanatics are put off by the Taliban's
intention to force their religion on others, or their repression of
women.
*Desertification is turning the Earth barren — but a solution is still within
reach.*
Desertification is another form of the same process of drying up that
is causing the fires in California and so many other regions of the
world.
The centrist leadership of Labour has not decided whether to allow Corbyn
to attend the party conference this year.
If they do not, I hope he arranges speeches of his own in non-party venues.
*Jordan's water crisis deepens as climate [heats up], population grows.*
President Moise's widow asks foreign powers to help figure out who arranged
his assassination.
* Iranian prosecutors have opened criminal cases against six guards at
Tehran’s Evin prison after footage showing widespread abuse of
[prisoners] at the facility leaked out last week.*
The US isn't usually so quick to investigate the crimes of prison
thugs.
50 House Democrats (the progressive ones) demand removal of fossil
fuel subsidies from the Reconciliation Bill.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: we should be investigating possible
future paths of nuclear arms development and (we hope not!) use,
to try to choose better paths and avoid the worst ones.
(satire) *New VA Initiative Helps Get Homeless Veterans Into Bigger Tents.*
*Two decades after 9/11, the real threat to the US is our own far right.*
Republican politicians, both minor and prominent ones, are fomenting
violence against school boards with the aim of intimidation, so they
won't require masks in schools.
When right-winger bullies win a victory through intimidation, they
call it a victory, and they vaunt it to whip up more bullies. We must
give them, instead, failures and defeats.
It would make sense for school board meetings to bring more than 20
strong men they can trust, perhaps some armed, to maintain security at
the entrances and inside the room. Plus a few cops, chosen for being
police officers,
rather than thugs, to arrest anyone that unmasks or threatens.
A Spanish hotel cleaners' union has developed a reservation app that rates
hotels on how well they treat their staff.
That is good — but does that app treat the customer any better than
the other reservation apps? Does it work without making the user run
nonfree software? I doubt it.
I am sure it requires users to identify themselves, which is one of
the reasons I hate staying in hotels in most of the world.
George Monbiot explains why infrastructure development tends not
to help reduce global heating. The first step is, even good plans
get distorted to prioritize profit for the construction industry
over actual benefit.
*Air pollution is likely to reduce the life expectancy of about 40% of Indians by more than nine years.*
The problem affects other large populations, too.
It is caused mainly by burning coal.
Visible signs of the start of the climate crisis have made many
Canadians dissatisfied with the proud planet-roasters of the
Conservative Party, and the foot-draggers of the ruling Liberal Party.
The Caldor wildfire in California is threatening the city of South
Lake Tahoe,
which has been evacuated.
Right-wing anti-vaxxers in LA have repeatedly attacked journalists
that cover their protests.
Uniformed thugs are sometimes present, doing nothing. Journalists
have accused specific people of attacking them, but the thugs say
nothing about arresting the attackers.
It appears to me that the thugs are actively supporting the right-wing
violence.
On one occasion, leftist counter-protesters attacked a journalist and
stole his phone and backpack. But that sounds like a panicky
reaction.
The right-wing, like Nazi brownshirts, attacks aggressively to show
strength. And they brag about it afterward, because it demonstrates
their strength.
The sooner the state demonstrates it is more powerful than they,
the less the problem will grow.
One case shows how far the FBI will go to track and surveil a single
person — without a warrant.
Hong Kong's court sentenced several democracy activists to around a year
in prison for a protests for democracy, using a "national security" law
passed after those protests took place.
It's valid to criticize Beyoncé for promoting the diamond business,
but we should direct that activism more broadly — at that business.
The article is correct that being manipulated by the diamond business
is not morally equivalent to promoting it commercially. But why be
had?
Aside from specialized industrial or research activities, nobody needs
a diamond. To mark engagement with diamonds is one of many cultural
practices set up by commercial PR so as to make people feel compelled
to purchase something they can't really afford, and could perfectly
well do without.
Often the people who would be most harmed by diverting money to this
folly are the ones who feel least able to resist it. Yet surrender
means that they start their life together on the wrong foot.
I suggest putting the money that they would have spent on diamonds
into a reserve bank account for the new couple. This will help them
cope with the challenges of life together. They could extend it into
a history of resisting business pressure to fritter away money on
other things PR teaches people to want, including a fancy, expensive
wedding. More savings will reduce the harm done by many kinds of
crises, and reduce stress.
Our economy is stacked against the poor, and against disprivileged
groups. Saving more by avoiding luxuries of only symbolic value may
not be enough to overcome that. But it will certainly do some good.
*Make historic campaign to ban leaded petrol "blueprint to phase out coal,"
says UN.*
World-wide, 1/3 of the known tree species are now threatened.
I would guess that 1/3 of the tree species yet to be identified
are also threatened.
US citizens: call on the Senate to reject Rahm Emanuel as ambassador
to Japan.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call on Congress to strengthen and expand Social
Security.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to transfer the 3 billion dollars
earmarked for the Afghan army into aid for Afghans, in Afghanistan and
evacuating from there
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
*In Guatemala, two ex-generals ordered to stand trial for genocide.*
One was part of the high command, and lead the campaign of
atrocities.
President Obama expanded US war by turning it into a system of
assassination via drones.
It solved the immediate political problem.
Radio stations and stores across Afghanistan are self-censoring by
eliminating music.
In Kandahar, the local Taliban have prohibited female announcers.
By forbidding western culture and Afghan music,
the Taliban will teach young people to yearn for them.
Of the 700 women journalists in Afghanistan, 600 have been compelled
to stop working.
80% of Israeli adults are fully vaccinated, but Covid-19 is spreading
nonetheless. A mask requirement may turn this around.
Distancing requirements may be necessary too.
South Korea is reforming the military justice system to remove command
influence.
Command influence
enables the commander of a unit to protect favorites from punishment
for crimes. It is particularly harmful when it protects them from
punishment for rape, which it often does.
South Korea is moving all sex crimes to civilian courts.
This would be a good reform for the US to adopt.
The air inside buildings, including homes and schools, is polluted with
toxic PFAS chemicals that seeps out of carpets and other products.
The article shows that we must not allow the companies that produce
these chemicals, or have any commercial involvement in them, to have
any influence in the task of studying their medical effects or their
prevalence.
A study finds that adolescents are fairly likely to get long Covid.
The article says "children", but in the group of people of age 11 to
17, only a small fraction are children. Please do not refer to
adolescents as "children".
(satire) *Elizabeth Holmes Arrives To Trial With Prototype For Black
Box That Will Prove Her Innocence.*
The US sells military training to many countries for their soldiers and thugs.
Because it's done by companies whose highest priority is income, the supposed
safeguards against training fascists who will be hired to torture or murder
are easily bypassed.
The propensity of US "precision" drone strikes to kill civilians who were
not the intended target reminds people that Daniel Hale is in prison
for telling us this.
Taliban murdered an Afghan folk musician. This is alarming because,
when they ruled, they prohibited nonreligious music and enforced the
prohibition harshly.
They say they won't impose that by force now. But that isn't much good
unless the Taliban gets control over its zealot wing.
(satire) *U.S. Airstrike Sends Tough Message To 4-Year-Old Afghans Not
To Mess With America.*
The disaster which Hurricane Ida is causing in Louisiana was
preventable. If we had taken the climate defense action 20 years ago
that climate scientists called for, we would not have had such a
strong hurricane now.
* The U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan should force a reckoning
with a long history of military intervention.*
Tunisia's president, who has deactivated the parliament, says nothing about
his long term plans for how to govern Tunisia.
A Chicago thug violently attacked a woman for walking her dog in a
park after sundown.
The woman was black, and he did not attack the whites in the park, so
it appears to be racism at work. However, this violence would have
been wrong regardless of the victim's race.
People inclined to violence and/or racism should not be allowed to
carry guns.
*What a story to tell the world: Britain values dogs more than Afghan
people.*
We need to put stand more firmly for human rights.
I think some animals should have some limited rights,
but human rights should be the priority.
The US and the UK were stingy in accepting refugees from Afghanistan.
They rejected many Afghans whom they had a moral obligation to save.
Only after the Taliban's victory did they realize how wrong this was.
By that time, there was no longer a way to get those people out.
Thus, the reluctance turned into a possibly irreparable failure.
Why was this? I think that both the US and the UK governments were in
the habit of acting two general prejudices: against immigrants in general,
and against Muslims in particular. For these reasons, they sought grounds
to reject whichever Afghans they could.
The Taliban said that rejected Afghan asylum seekers would face some sort of
trial if sent back to Afghanistan.
It is not clear from the article whether this refers to all rejected
Afghan asylum seekers, or only some — perhaps, those rejected based
on accusations of having committed crimes in Afghanistan. That makes
a big difference. The latter would be a legitimate policy; the
former, no.
Any song I listen to,
I can share a copy too.
Hello, my name is _____________ and I'm a constituent of the
senator's. I am calling to urge Senator _________ to support the
tax reform plan being put forward by Senator Wyden and Majority
Leader Schumer.
It will raise the revenue needed to fully fund the Build Back
Better plan by making the rich and corporations begin paying
their fair share of taxes.
Senator Wyden's tax plan includes the Billionaires Income Tax,
which I strongly support. It is critical that billionaires start
paying taxes on their investment gains each year the same as
workers like me pay taxes on our wages each year.
Again, I urge the senator to support Senator Wyden's tax plan and
his Billionaires Income Tax. Thank you.
Has everyone named in the Pandora papers done something wrong?
No. Moving money offshore is not in or of itself illegal,
*White House chief of staff
Mark Meadows, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, former adviser
Steve Bannon, and Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting
Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller…*
It will end gerrymandering along partisan or racial lines by requiring fair maps for
congressional districts. And, it will take important steps to curtail secret money in elections and encourage small-dollar donors to reduce the
influence of big money.
Please support H.135 so as to prohibit using face recognition to identify
people and track people in Massachusetts. Whatever your skin color,
you deserve privacy in your movements.
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